ACTIVE IMAGINATION AND THE ORIGINATION OF DESIGN IDEAS

Many artists work in various medias to attain greater clarity of their active imagination throughout the design process, arriving at a concretization of an idea. For the architect, the conceptual development of a design idea is discovered through an ever-increasing awareness of the site, the building program and usually, encapsulates a stated objective by the owner. These tripartite identifiers are only a beginning, however, as an architect’s conceptual development may also include consideration of social, economic, geometric, and emotional qualities to name only a few. The point of conceptual origination is an evolution of awareness and an understanding into the nature of the problem. For example, “although. a building’s FAR is calculated over the entire site, should the building footprint orient vertically and reduce its footprint, this spatial arrangement allows for open space at ground level.” “The urban context limits vistas, but also enhances individual privacy, suggesting an internality to the building’s enclosure and spatial objectives.” In both cases, a comprehensive understanding of the context and the building’s use, establish rational design parameters and set an “origination point” for the architect to explore.

Referencing the example of views noted above, by orienting the building’s primary views into an adjacent courtyard, suggests a spatial orientation - that of borrowing neighboring spaces to establish private areas. How that spatial assumption contributes to the formulation of a concept, which is then translated into an actual building design, however, represents only a starting point in the process. The circuitous route between the understanding the problem, the concept, and the resulting building design, tests the individual architect’s creativity in developing the concept, and the viability of the design itself. The final form of conceptual ideas change over the design process and are reassessed when the concept is constructed and used by the owner.

The circuitous path of design development spoken of here, is mysterious, namely due to the design result is literally unknown. The basis of solving a design problem rests upon aforementioned tripartite information and the shear creativity of the architect. For example, with the Plinth Building and the Spinnaker Building, both follow a rather evolutionary path (layered concepts that build upon one another), until the concept of seeing over, or, looking into, was realized as a final design objective. With these two examples, once the basic orientations are developed, a cascade of design ideas are hierarchically considered in light of the established deign objective, with ideas weighted against the design objective and support the concept. Of course, through this lengthy process, many ideas are considered and do not necessarily result in an imagined design solution but something altogether unexpected and unique. Unique solutions are a testament to the process itself and generally met with enthusiasm.

Curious then, is the mystery of how and when ideas establish themselves and synchronize within the architect’s mind. The simultaneity of pattern and function, expression and rhythm, form and science, geography and utility, beauty and poetry, congeal in flashes of insight and intuition at unexpected times throughout the design process. The realization of the design - no longer a series of separate and distinct ideas but as an “object itself” - signals when the design process, in a very abstract manner, reaches “singularity”, culminating at the apex of the design process with a building design that responds to the tripartite information and the corresponding emotions of its spatial configuration.

Residential Programming

Recently, I listened to “You Say to Brick” by Wendy Lesser, describing the life of Louis Kahn, the American architect and professor, who gained recognition for his work in the United States and throughout the world. What was not known to me before this book was his personal approach to architecture, namely, his writings and teaching style that focused on the creation of architecture as an expression, which is also a fundamental human characteristic. Kahn’s collection of writings are provocative and offer insightful passages about the nature of design and the creation of architecture, specifically.

Acknowledging the gravitational pull of Kahn’s writings, leads me to inquire about the nature of residential programming. At this first level of realization, the home program is really quite simply, since it is comprised of a series of rooms like a kitchen, bedroom, etc. At this fundamental understanding, coupled with the room size, a floor plan can be designed using only the function as a measure of relationships between spaces. This approach is entirely valid and accounts for a banausic layout driven by functionality alone. It is logical, then, the next step extrudes the plan into three dimensions, a roof is added, and a house is created. Practically speaking, this process is likely used at various levels throughout the construction industry, as plethora of websites offer house plans for sale, and with millions built, the subtler aspects of great design are sublimated to the gross functionality of the plan and style.

Using Jungian active imagination, I imagine Kahn’s more insightful approach, that of, “what is a bedroom space, and what does it what to be?” When I reflected on his likely inquiry, I found a shocking realization; the function of a room can be aligned with function, yes, but also with its relationship to the human being. The association of the bathroom, for example, is a space for the body. It is a sensual space for the daily rituals involving body. The acknowledgement of function, layered with the room’s spiritual purpose, i.e. the body, begins to shift, in my understanding of the room’s signifier. The room suddenly becomes a celebration, a heightened awareness of the quotidian ritual of the body, which elevates certain fundamental truths. Sometimes, a shower is just a shower, especially if it is in a windowless room and lacking ventilation. Sometimes, the shower becomes a personal retreat, a place of immense emotional renewal, especially when filled with natural light, a view into nature, luxurious water flow, and natural ventilation. I recall a brief visit along the Gulf of Mexico, where I stayed in an adobe hut with a lofty grass roof. Most memorable, however, was the outdoor shower, open to the sky and tiled with colorful mosaics. But, above these tactile appointments, was my shear emotional enjoyment of the coupling of nature and bathing. Both the body and my spirit were drenched, and both quenched, by this alchemical cocktail of water, nature, and the body. In the Terrace House, I purposefully placed the main bathing tub in a spatial alcove with glazing on two sides, taking full advantage of the site’s more intimate characteristics, while heightening the bather’s experience of nature.

I now realize residential programming is beyond functionality, but also includes a internal recognition of a room’s relationship to the person, in the sense of Mind, Body, and Spirit. These three, or perhaps just it is just two, Mind and Body being primary, and the Spirit is omnipresent in both, can further identify a room’s characteristics. Kahn’s idea of served and serving spaces are functionally classified. Here, the transcendence of function is imbued with Spirit of purpose. Not to digress into esoteric hyperbole, but to simply align my consciousness with a greater sensitivity to the fundamental purpose of the room. I am looking forward to applying this insight, and anticipate design work that resonates with the Mind, Body, and Spirit of its users. Mr. Kahn, your work continues into the future, ever vigilant, in helping the student understand the immense intuitive power of your teachings.

Community Interest Model

Ownership of Commercial Real-Estate and the Community Interest Model.

Similar to eliminating exclusionary zoning, broadening ownership in real-estate for millions of less affluent people, who could never afford to make larger real-estate investments given prevalent social equity and justice issues, offers sound community and personal investment opportunities. The concept works to leverage a large number of community members in fractional real-estate investment, whereby the neighborhood’s constituency is a participate in the financial funding of the project, to a greater or lesser extent. An example is a community of say, 50 households, form a collective and become part of the financing in development projects within the community. The key point here is this model could provide access investment opportunities for low-income families and promote their ownership in the development of vacant or neglected properties. Ownership promotes a common interest in the type of project while highlighting the needs of a community. It is at a “micro real-estate” investment scale that allows a community to leverage their personal interests while building personal wealth, and who, may otherwise struggle make such a demanding personal investment. The micro real-estate concept centers on individual investment together with larger shareholders, both of whom become the beneficiary of new development.

One possible exit strategy is the eventual buyout of municipal or developer’s interests with local community interests. Since a community buyout could be delayed and incentivized by tax reductions, and community grants to the developer, a delay in selling the property could also result in an increase of value and a more desirable position to hold the property. Perhaps a municipal interest could assist the community and provide matching funds to secure low land costs, while the constituency contributes to the project management and financing costs over time. The primary idea is to transfer property ownership and its interests, to the children, families, and related interests of the community over time.

Compton, California, for example, could be the test piece for consideration, where interested families can buy micro shares of property within multiple neighborhoods. They would then have a shared interest in creating value, at least to some extent, to bind the community to the real-estate investment and a shared interest in its success. The idea would need a portfolio of properties to make the investment worth the effort. What are the number of houses, for example, that require ownership? Perhaps another way to ask the question is, would an errant neighbor/investor dilute the motivation to invest? A recent case study in Denver may provide one answer. When a house was sold and used for illicit purposes by the new owner, the neighborhood eventually turned the owners over to the police, which ended the problem. The main point here, the neighborhood acted concerning the use of the house. Imagine if neighborhoods actually had multiple ownership interests in the property, and what that type of interest might prevent?

This concept of shared investment also asks for commitment on behalf municipal agencies to broaden the type of investment services in neighborhoods that are currently overwhelmed by in-situ systems of economic, and social hierarchies, and witness losses in land values and lack the resources necessary to sustain a vibrant community. With this investment concept, neighborhood constituencies have a shared interest in development projects and become the beneficiaries of real-estate transactions while shaping the type of development that occurs in their best interest.

The Red Barn Effect

With my observations of the rapid aging of modernist monuments throughout the globe, I find myself pondering the building process relative to historic means of building structures. What is the effect of weather and time on otherwise, more contemporary detailing with its smooth surfaces, the use of petroleum-based sealants and treatments, additives, and synthetics, to this substantial portfolio of civic and vernacular buildings? I ask myself: what stands the test of time and weather like an old sage? The simple red barn comes to mind, as both an iconic building with its details and materiality. Combined, these factors form a bond with the image, rendering the barn a more powerful example of how an aging building can turn from vinegar into wine.

Using the personal example of a mid-century house located in Minot, North Dakota, that, through the years, has been bought and sold by multiple parties. The original owner was an architect, and utilized a modernist design language when designing both the house and landscaping. The current condition of the property’s landscaping has all but disappeared and the house appears cluttered with debris. Lost was the once eloquent structure standing in well considered landscaping. When comparing it adjacent to the suburban styled homes on the same block, they appear in better condition, as if the owners know what to expect and subsequently, understand the architectural language and how it should be cared for and maintained. Modernism is not a dialect, but a new language that must be learned, and unfortunately, demands an understanding of its design principles to keep congruent with its original design precepts.

When a modern building is juxtaposed with the “the red barn, a symbol of the agrarian past, the barn appears timeless and imbued with a sense of belonging. TA modern suburban structure seems to express an accelerated aging process and can appear incongruent. This is not an advocation of the ubiquitous red barn, or more over, a historic building style, but more an inquiry to a design approach that best survives over time, almost Darwinian in nature, and related to buildings “fit” within the environment. Antecedents that are best suited for the climate in which they are found, typically rely on passive design elements in lieu of active mechanical systems. And yes, these structures are commonly retrofitted with modern mechanical and electrical systems. But even if their passive techniques are inadequate, the vernacular style, when equipped with new building science strategies, are buildings have “defined Place through time”.

How might a community “in time” appear? Verrado, a master-planned community located in the city of Buckeye, Arizona, approximately 25 miles (40 km) west of downtown Phoenix, is a New Urbanism community. Here, traditional building forms and community patterning set the baseline for an extended projection of time and continuity. Yes, not the modernist experiment, but certainly a steady, unified vision for and about the collective whole over time. Time, in this case, is the key element in the planning and execution of this community. In 50 years hence, most likely the building forms will only mature, since the landscaping and aging of materials will contribute to the authenticity of the Place. Because of when it was constructed and the stylistic restrictions imposed on the structures, the community aesthetic will reinforce the belief that the development is conceived and built in a time before modernism, therefore giving it the perception of time. The restriction of styles gives the development continuity. The street and building patterning and organization reinforce a sense of community. Therefore, “Place” results when three or more elements are consistently applied to an organized area to better substantiate the perception of time, resulting in desirable conditions for living. These desirable aspects include walkability, integration of landscape into a natural order that reinforces the street with episodic parks and greenswards that incorporate desirable natural open spaces. Proportionately scaled private and public buildings, effective lighting, and a mindful proximity of functions to one another with form based zoning, as commercial retail is clustered with mixed use, and neighborhood housing includes different types of housing forms and shapes, and follows a logical placement within the community mapping as a whole.

Verrado’s main civic park is located at the end of Main Street. Axial and formal, the park is an open space, bounded by tree lined streets and subtle changes in elevation that result in broad steps, stairs, fountains, and follies. The image is fanciful, suggestive of a time and place of leisure and relaxation, while also supporting a nostalgic time. Time, in this community, IS the main idea! The community becomes a time machine, an act of preservation that extends effortlessly into the future. Not the position of modernism, and its heroic forecasting of the future, which once the future arrives, becomes recessive, and out of date with time itself. Long before its time ceases to exist, modernism appears to lack the vitality of its historic antecedent. There is a strange irony here, how the historic building is perceived in present time, while the present or modern building, becomes simply, past time.

The question of whether modernism can remain malleable with respect to time, or perhaps, if modernism itself, is its own achievement within the spectrum of time? Of course, a successful modern community never disqualifies itself from the three principles espoused earlier, since livability is a preeminent quality of any successful neighborhood. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, the built environment keeps pace with the past and contributes to the city’s moniker “the city different”. Although the city exhibits a history of myriad of styles, the evolution of its current incarnation of itself, the built environment, is one of a preindustrial past. This vision continues to attract those seeking a sense of Place, especially since it is conveniently mixed with modern comforts.

If Santa Fe reinforces a singular vision with multiple types of styles-with the caveat all styles are preindustrial. Las Vegas, Nevada is a plethora of style and no matter how well done, the effect is divided and not cohesive, rather discordant, because each building defines its unique commercial enterprise. When partaking on the strip, one can live as a Roman, a Parisian, or as one from another defined period from civilization’s card catalog past. The effect is temporary, however, as most likely either visits or works on the strip but doesn’t live there. The saying “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” may prove true for its denizens, yet for the lifestyle tourist, a trip to Vegas suggests a time travel of the imagination and the freedom to choose what era to immerse the self in decadent behavior. Here, architecture’s purpose is to act as a prop, a mere device that reinforces the temporal fantasy of the Place, and it might be said, a Place, nonetheless. As more modern and mid-century buildings are lost within the surrounding historic spectacle, they too, are seen more and more as unforgiving edifices erected in a brutal period. Their solid planes of singular, tactile materials that dwarf human scale, rest astride historic structures of texture and articulation and act as signifiers to memorable places. Try as a night’s events may, the Vegas Strip is both Place and failure of Place, as a sense time disappears altogether, that renders a perfect 24-hour day experience. Time is a valuable teacher when creating an edifice of a lasting nature, as with every building, even the simple red barn, it has hoped these new and contributing buildings, great and small, become symbols of the Place where they stand.

ARCHITECTURAL NARRATIVE FOR AN RFP

Midtown Santa Fe, an Introduction to Theory

In the book Ladders by Albert Pope, the author lays bare the phenomenological condition of the contemporary city: that the city is largely “Invisible”. That is not to say that contemporary cities are not being built; cities undergo daily physical transformation when accommodating various types of industrial, technological and social change; but simply to express the lack of urban theory through which the city, as an epistemological framework, can be constructed. The Midtown Santa Fe Project is an opportunity for an applied urban theory acknowledging the City’s programming and design mandates that envisions a New City Center charged with specific and diverse usages.

“Theory” in its original meaning could be described as a vision (from the Greek term Theorein: to look at or behold.) Perhaps Pier Vittorio Aurell is correct when he states that “By operating through a theory, the establishment of concepts through which a community can develop a shared understanding of the phenomenon. Theory thus consists of the putting-fourth of paradigms that under a common framework, allow us to grasp a multiplicity of things and events without reducing them to slogans.”1

As the Master Developer, Zydeco’s theory for Midtown is an epistemological framework centered on sensory experience coupled with historic precedent that is supported by a rigorous economic analysis of the program and its corresponding development strategies.

Zydeco’s objective for this urban design proposal lays claim to a multitude of layered concepts, allowances, and considerations that derive a multiplicity of events, types and experiences that connect, promote and afford the City its ability to successfully reclaim the Midtown Santa Fe for the betterment of the City and its denizens. Zydeco’s proposal is at once:

1. A historic reflection that protects existing site trees and preserves specific existing buildings for ongoing commerce while retaining a collective memory and recalling historic precedent for spatial—not architectural— inspiration.

2. A program-based project that increases the immediate area population density by maximizing the highest and best use of the land by increasing building density to magnify the importance of location, connectivity, and creation of new partnerships while simultaneously addressing the affordable and market rate housing shortages;

3. Imagines a future where City’s denizens live, work and choose educational and career pathways that embrace emerging technologies in fluid social relationships that alter current thinking about living, recreation, education, career and retirement.

4. Creates and presents the new image of Santa Fe in the 21st Century as a progressive place to live, work and retire while retaining a spirit de corps unique to Santa Fe; core values of a city that champions educational opportunities for our youth and elder and everyone in-between populations, green building and renewable energy initiatives and partners with the business class to attract and promote Santa Fe as a regional hub and desirable community for life’s’ opportunities.

Zydeco’s proposal originated by utilizing the concept of the “ladder”, where the “grid iron” of surrounding streets do not continue through the site, but rather dissolve, exposing primary and secondary access points, existing trees and a handful of specific buildings that serve as historic markers and referents within the proposed development.

Rather than designing a new campus plan by giving it form, Zydeco choose first to focus on the resulting empty space. The campus plan is no longer a composition of different buildings but of urban space with an emphasis of how the “emptiness” could be best integrated within the existing city when paired with city programmatic criteria. With the establishment of access points, historic markers and retained anchor buildings, the site was divided into opportunity “districts” and attached to appropriate referent buildings or functions already existing or easily provided. For example, the existing Garson Communication and Studio building expands into an entire district totaling ten acres. By grouping like with like, access and use are paired, allowing the film operations to continue without disruption while expanding the existing film facilities.

Districts, the Establishment of Place

With the formation of the districts, Zydeco manipulates their boundaries, forming relevant adjacencies with other districts or functions. For example, the hospitality district and its adjacency to Saint Michaels Drive and the Midtown Center is a logical beneficiary of its neighbors and location. The Housing District is where a concentration of the 1,500 housing units are planned. This number of new housing units suggest the creation of three neighborhoods of approximately 1,000 people, totaling approximately 3,000 on-site residents once the development is built-out. The Housing District shall also include opportunities for related functions, such as mixed use, educational and recreational uses that contribute to the Housing District’s primary use. The following is a general parsing of information related to the establishment and content of each district:

Existing Site Features and Organization

District invisible boundaries are designated as places for the public sphere with activities and connectivity to the greater City and intentionally designed to beautify Midtown Santa Fe. Using the same example as above, the Garson Film District incorporates a public entry located adjacent to a linear art park and outdoor amphitheater and IMAX Theatre. The boundary between the Film and City Center Districts are readily accessible by pedestrian and bicycle and share a Ribbon Park, much like the existing railyards farmers market is connected by linear pedestrian paths.

Within the foundational ladder approach, the following buildings within the existing campus are retained to assist with the management of the City’s debit reduction while promoting the announcing the new Midtown campus plan. The retained buildings will continue to generate income and continue to attract people to the site during the 90-month construction schedule.

1. The Fogelson Library and the quad (demolish the Forum building.)

2. Garson Communications and Garson Studios (technically one building.)

3. The Fogelson Recreation Center.

4. Greer Garson Theater.

5. Benidus Hall.

6. Original campus historic building.

7. Santa Fe Art Institute.

8. Manon Center for Photography, Tipton Hall, and Tishman Hall.

9. Retain heathy trees with a caliper size greater than 4 inches.

Transportation in Two Parts, the Super Block and the Community

The proposed Midtown Santa Fe plan envisions the existing surrounding roads; Siringo Road, Camino Carlos Rey, Cerrillos Road, Saint Michaels Drive, and Ilano Street as a super block poised for connection to the Midtown campus. The roads cleanly differentiate residential neighborhoods from institutional, commercial retail and educational use in a similar function as the ring roads found at the central historic core. In concert to the existing Midtown acreage, the Thomas Family is a development partner with Zydeco wishing to participate through land development, resulting in the current Midtown Campus reaching the Saint Michaels Drive with the Zydeco Development. The Campus plan is no longer “landlocked” with its Saint Michaels Drive and Ilano Street frontage.

The super block fractal is a perfect “fit” for how the City may envision integrating both existing and future developments within the city: Like a cell, the perimeter membrane is bounded with residential housing and within a walkable distance to the commercial and educational membrane. Said membranes surround an inner area, the Midtown nucleus, which functions as a mixed use center and combines and densifies residential, commercial and education uses while sharing good and services with the adjacent membranes, all within super block. Midtown is within one such super block and we believe, is the nucleus of transformative growth for the area.

To facilitate the porosity between the three membranes mentioned herein, a dedicated transportation system is planned to move around Midtown and the super block. In time, this system could reach other nodal points such as the Midtown LINQ, which would connect Christus Saint Vincent Regional Medical Center and supporting medical facilities to the Midtown development. By connecting academic, research and medical services to the Midtown campus encourages a “corridor effect”; attracting new businesses along the transportation enriched Saint Michaels Boulevard. It is of interest to note the City’s interest in transforming St Michaels Drive is strategic and explored many ideas, one such idea positioned a transit hub/ train stain at the intersection of St Michaels Drive and the existing railroad crossing. It is noted that many participants in the Midtown LINQ charrette proposed to reduce the 7 lane road to 4 lanes and provide a center median for park space, a transit station or other types of civic or commercial retail space with housing bordering the proposed “Boulevard.” The discussion is indeed ripe since St Michaels Drive has over 30,000 vehicles per day on what constitutes one of the busiest roadways in the city. It can be argued that mass transportation linking critical facilities on each end would decrease traffic. Because of the housing density proposed at Midtown places inhabitants in a work / live situation within a resource rich neighborhood, creating a “car free” possibility for Santa Fe.

Although a dedicated transportation system is viewed as the ideal type of people mover; clean, quiet and highly efficient; the initial phases of development are likely to incorporate dedicated bus routes circulating around and from the Midtown Santa Fe project to the Christus Saint Vincent Regional Medical Center. The location for a transit hub is currently planned within the Film District #1, is positioned to accommodate the influx of new film related jobs.

We suggest a strategic transportation study be commissioned that identifies where traffic remains a demanding and persistent challenge to the City as a whole. Imagine how Saint Francis Drive would benefit from a dedicated transportation system linking with a north –south spur that connects to a Midtown LINQ. A link to the Rail Runner depot suggests a higher use and potentially integrates transportation at many levels of use: the neighborhood, municipal and regional. There are, indeed, many ways to imagine the future of transportation that encourages efficient and timely commuting. As part of the Environmental Emblem efforts described herein, large environmental initiatives will impact existing transportation infrastructure, reducing the number of emissions producing vehicles. The New York Times published “The Most Detailed Map of Auto Emissions in America,” where the Albuquerque metro area was shown to have 66% emissions increase since 1990, averaging a 10% per person increase over the same time period. Fuel standards, better emission controls and related technological advances are only part of the solution to controlling run-away auto emissions. Transportation is one of the most expensive restructuring efforts a municipality will consider but the direct benefits will be enjoyed— and appreciated— by generations of Santa Feans to come. The Midtown development is about the future of Santa Fe, and therefore Zydeco considers a broad transportation planning effort as integral to the success of Midtown and the City as a whole.

Midtown Roads

The proposed site plan makes connections to existing streets but discourages “through traffic patterning” of the site. The street layout is designed to slow traffic and discourage the “short cut” from Cerrillos Road through Midtown to Siringo. Although loop roads are maintained to facilitate the heavy use I the film and hospitality districts, there is a conscious effort to interrupt the street grid and provide streets that narrow, curve and terminate. Vehicular navigation in the development is learned and not made apparent.

The circuitous route design has a logical corollary effect: the slower the car, the safer the pedestrian and bicyclist. Recently, New York Times, published the article “Cars are Death Machines. Self-Driving Tech Won’t Change That” quoted recent statistics describing the number of pedestrian fatalities in the United States have increased 41 percent since 2008 and the staggering loss of 6,000 pedestrians in 2018.” Where different interests compete for dominance, Zydeco choose to reinforce the “walkable” concept, which impacted the layout of the vehicular traffic system from straight roads and “short cuts” to circuitous and meandering. An idea nested within the road distribution network is to limit the one point perspective — A.K.A. “the road that stretches to infinity” effect with a sense of wonder — “what is around the bend,” effect.

One qualitative aesthetic feature of the Historic Core and other parts of Santa Fe are the meandering streets that weave and seem to consciously avoid the one point perspective street found in American Cities. Meandering streets create a “filmic scene” through the windshield of a car. Indeed, traveling on East Alameda Street is a visual delight with the adjacent river park and Santa Fe River, its canopied street trees and an architecture that is an experience of pattern and texture dappled in light. Alameda feels like a footpath staged to heighten the experience of this beautiful street. At Midtown, the utility of the road is coupled with the aesthetic pleasure of the drive. We ask why the two can’t co-exist to heighten the experience of its users. At Midtown, they will.

Where to Park?

With higher density housing resulting from combining civic, educational and commercial uses coupled with Midtown as a community destination, the question “where to park” is relevant.

The development of a mass transportation strategy other than the personal automobile is imperative. Bicycle and pedestrian paths, city buses and even a tram system play key roles in solving parking related issues of space, congestion and pollution. Another salient bulwark to reducing traffic is on-site Live / Work environments. Zydeco’s plan seeks to implement this New Urbanist idea that encourages walkability and proximity of work and home. These are demanding urban planning strategies that necessitate a new urban structure to reduce the parking requirements. “Proximities” are highlighted here since Zydeco’s proposed development plan integrates this planning initiative to assure the proximity of Live / Work is more than a convenience, but a strategy that differentiates a 21st Century City from a 20th Century City. Zydeco’s Midtown development sides with the 21st Century model.

Zydeco’s approach to the parking dilemma is unique: dedicated parking structures are built interior to high density housing and hospitality structures. This approach locates a concentration of parking in multilevel structures and greatly reduce the area consumed by surface parking and conceals parking from the public eye. There are five planned parking structures in the development; four parking structures dedicated to multifamily housing with 1,228 parking spaces and one parking structure dedicated to hospitality. In the case of hospitality, the hotel is built during phase III and is sized to accommodate 640-parking spaces. This concentrated parking structure also accommodates the parking requirements associated with the City Center area; its educational dormitories, luxury housing and civic functions. With an adjacency to High Street, the hotel parking structure contributes to easing parking demands this street creates while remaining behind a curtain of architecture; the hotel parking structure unbeknown to the casual observer.

For Sale Housing shall have garages attached to the residence. Perimeter parking is provided when business, housing or educational uses are adjacent to the campus perimeter loop road. The 905 “Loop” parking spaces are tasked with double duty; serving as both parking, storm water catchment system and potential locations where photovoltaic panels can be placed, creating shade and generating power for the adjacent buildings. The parket is another feature that interrupts the monotonous repetition of parking space after parking space and interjects moments of repose and conviviality that engender “pausing”.

Constructing Midtown is planned in phases with housing construction serving as a metronome, setting the pace of 300-units per 24-months of construction. Initially, within the second24-months, 300-multifamily units are planned around a parking structure with adequate parking capacity to meet the needs of the multifamily units and adjacent developing functions. Parking and use cannot be de-coupled as both share in synergizing the development by making finding parking easy and enjoyable and within walking distance of one’s destination.

Paths for People

“The paradox of transportation in the late 20th Century is that while it became possible to travel to the moon, it also became impossible, in many cases, to walk across the street.”

—Joell Vanderwagen

The importance of well-organized vehicular roadways is obvious, but in the coming age, the growing importance of self-propelled locomotion such as walking, skating and biking fits within the new urbanist concept of walkable neighborhoods. Zydeco’s vision for Midtown is one such development that welcomes the progressive concept of healthy living through better planned communities that embrace closer proximity of living to commerce, education and recreation.

The placement of the City Center District near the epicenter of the site describes a “hub” diagram that radiates into the perimeter of the site and into the super block beyond. We developed two pedestrian throughways in the project that connect to the super block and ideally, beyond to the City’s network of pedestrian and biking trails. The two throughways are the “Ribbon Park” and “High Street”. These paths are pedestrian oriented connections where motorized vehicles are prohibited or restricted. About the City Center, a large public plaza connects to various pedestrian pathways, which, intern connect to the two pedestrian throughways.

The development’s Ribbon Park connects to the Franklin E. Miles Park, which is near the Arroyo Trail. Arroyo de Los Chamisos Trail could also connect to the property. Within a one-mile radius there are a handful of city parks, which would share a synergy with a connection Midtown, since “Omnes viae Romam ducunt (all roads lead to Rome).” Midtown Santa Fe is the missing link that connects and radiates from a central location.

The Midtown LINQ proposals promote opportunities that embrace a new vision for the neighborhood much like the same planning arrangement found in Manhattan, without the massive scale of course. Similar to Manhattan planning strategy about many of the City’s avenues and collector streets, organized mixed use development places retail on the ground floor

and housing above. The LINQ neighborhood proposals suggest a dramatic increase in population density relative to the adjacent neighborhoods. With such a dramatic increase in the neighborhood’s population, the very need for walkable streets and pathways that are shaded, safe and friendly is paramount. The continuation of the planning concepts herein offers a glance as to how they can create a synergized living and working environment.

A New Front Door

The present reality and design legacy of Saint Michaels Drive doesn’t need to cement its future purpose; once foreseen as a bypass around the City to becoming a major thoroughfare with strip development counting over 30,000 vehicles a day. To the west of this busy thoroughfare is the entry into the proposed development. How then, which such traffic volume and at times, congestion, can the entry into the burgeoning development appear welcoming and calming amidst the box and small strip mall development?

The development immediately adjacent to Midtown is currently owned by the Thomas Family, whom are willing to join the Zydeco Team in expanding and developing a more attractive and architecturally rich environment for living and working. As part of this proposal, the considered development of the Thomas property will initiate development along Saint Michaels and begins what years of planning suggest: realization of the Midtown LINQ.

About the new Midtown entry, Zydeco proposes to extend High Street along the south side of Saint Michaels Drive, linking the existing shopping centers and joining Midtown to the existing context, largely dominated both small and large shopping center style developments. The Ribbon Park too extends on the south side of the existing strip mall development and fronts Ilano Street, where it could extend further east and running the entire length of the shopping complex south of Saint Michaels Drive. By extending High Street and the Ribbon Park in the first phase of development; with it’s the green space, bike and pedestrian trails and mass transportation links; Midtown extends to Saint Michaels Drive ; introduces new opportunities for co-developers and participants looking for economic incentives to upgrade and develop anew.

The new front door is conceived not as a singular urban gesture of a “grand intersection,” disturbing the ebb and flow of Saint Michaels Drive, but as a continuous street wall similar to the urban development exemplified by the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. As development about the Grand Canal suggests, a continuous street wall limns the canal where streets or mirror water ways access the primary canal. In this way, Midtown’s minor streets continue to Saint Michaels Drive and continue the City’s grid iron layout found in adjacent neighborhoods, unifying the development aimed at “integration with, in lieu of differentiating from” existing street and utility infrastructure. About these multiple minor entries defined by “voids within the street wall,” one entry will announce itself as primary but remains a T- intersection design with Saint Michaels Drive, similar in function as the existing main entry. It is noted that T-intersections are a safer type of intersection for this busy roadway.

The primary Midtown entry has a wider berth than the mirror access streets; the vehicular lanes are divided by a tree lined median with a gossamer acequia type element. The street right-of-way is wider, and the buildings are set further apart presents a natural opportunity for a long view into the Midtown development than the minor access streets where the roads are narrower and the buildings narrow. Zydeco’s decision to take this approach when developing the “Front Door” of the campus is aimed primarily due to the proposed development’s increase in density. Multiple access points disperse traffic across multiple streets in lieu of taxing one primary entry.

A final thought about Midtown’s front door concept. Neighborhoods within the City of Santa Fe flow into one another as neighborhoods; old and new neighborhoods are not demarcated with formal entries, gates, pillars of stone and changes in street textures that announce the promise of something different on the other side of the boundary. Boundaries in the existing City typology are made not at between neighborhoods but with yard walls between the public Right-Of-Way and private property. Zydeco acknowledges this Santa Fe’s historic development pattern and champions its resonance with the very idea of a boundary-less neighborhood that do not imply, restrict or limit access. Zydeco envisions Midtown as borderless development flowing into the existing city without restrictions. Zydeco’s planning approach is a metaphor for the effects of Midtown’s unrestricted social, educational, ecological, and financial benefits that continue into greater Santa Fe and beyond.

Historic Precedent, Contemporary Interpretation

The types of places the Zydeco Team intends to create must capture a sense of Place as opposed to an architectural style. We understand that a large-scale development achieves diversity in approach and details when multiple professionals plan and design through time. Regardless of the number of participants, a sense of place is critical. To emphasize Place rather than the architecture at this point is difficult since the texture of the urban buildings has yet to be determined with a great degree of specificity. To ameliorate this challenge, the development of urban character is based on timeless places; Continental, American, and South African; that borrow successful indoor and outdoor urban patterns that have withstood generational change with aplomb.

The above plaza is in Delft, Netherlands and represents aspects which the proposed development includes, namely the blurring of lines between street and park. Here, people can maneuver freely from the street to the plaza without as much as a grade change. Not only is the pedestrian the prime occupant, but curb-less barriers also accommodate the disabled without visual clues such as ramps, handrails and specialty striping. One noted use this plaza is the extension of restaurant services into the plaza, where outdoor dining is part of the experience. The canopied trees overhead remind us of another reason why the protection of Midtown’s existing trees must be saved. Trees of this size lend presence to the new plaza rich with abundant shade, offering a sense of timelessness regardless of the surrounding architectural style. It is well noted the maturity of these trees represents in time what cannot be bought: Aged Perfection.

About the area of the New City Center, the streets function with the utility of moving and receiving of goods; our approach is to locate the “street” within an easement, thereby eliminating the necessity for a building set back. About areas where the plaza is dependent on density, the easement is leveraged to create enclosure without setback restrictions. There are, however, locations even within an easement, where natural light shall be accommodated, as outlined in the terracing section of this writing.

A similarity to the Delft plaza is its creation of an outdoor room, much like the Santa Fe’s Plaza center. The City of Santa Fe historic core is that of a medieval Spanish city where a central plaza is bounded by ring roads, Paseo da Peralta and Guadalupe Street. The Plaza in Historic Santa Fe remains a very successful and inviting social and civic space, attracting residents as well as tourists the world over.

Although roads continue from this area into the remainder of Santa Fe, this central district remains distinct and draws its boundaries from the adjacent neighborhoods in clear fashion. Namely, the State of New Mexico government grounds to the south and the Federal and City centers to the north, bookending the north-south axis. The roadways divide the central area form the neighborhood districts and thusly separate commerce, hospitality and restaurants from the conterminous residential neighborhoods.

Situated on 18.8acres, the District #6 The Midtown Center and Education District is the proposed home to a new city center building; an H-shaped building bilaterally intersecting a plaza which is separated into two exterior spaces. The City Center building is purposely programmed with many uses to generate pedestrian activity and literally create a buzz within the development. The City Center draws its spatial inspiration from a market space in Venice, Italy.

It is the type of spatial articulation of enclosure and openness— not the architecture— the City Center aims to emulate; an unencumbered movement from one side of the plaza through a porous building to the other side. Together, the two plazas total over ______ square feet, rendering the plaza space as a versatile and enchanted plaza for many types of uses. The Plaza is considered “open space” within the development and joins the other three types of open space (parks) in assuring social equity for the users of Midtown.

The City Center H-building is programmed to attract continual use; the ground floor occupied with local restaurants and businesses and use the two plaza areas as extensions to their businesses, the second floor is dedicated for institutional uses such as classrooms and staff offices, the third floor is dedicated to student housing and the fourth floor is for short term rentals. The intended use extends the restaurant into the plaza for use as public dining areas under the stars. The proposed City Center plaza locations are already part of the existing campus quad location and establish the epicenter of the new development.

The Plaza is marked by an obelisk, which is one way many civilizations mark settlements ranging from ancient time to the present. We propose a vertical belvedere located adjacent to the City Center that offers additional housing. The belvedere is a visual element reaching a height of 82-feet above the plaza open space below. The belvedere is one of many architectural symbols located within the City Center district.

High Street: A Place of Connectivity

The term “High Street” is typically British that became popular during the Victorian Era. Generally, High Street denotes and place of “Highness” or “Excellence” that was applied to shops and retail. Over the centuries, use of the term has languished, in part because of a lack in shopping diversity and the rise of on-line purchasing. In the conceptual creation of High Street, Zydeco evolves the meaning: In lieu of primary a street of retail, Zydeco intends Midtown High Street as a place of connectivity where an amalgamation occurs between district functions. An example of this programmatic amalgamation is parsing users into representatives from three groups: one third programmatic, one third nonprofit, and one third retail. Coarse graining this idea further suggests positioning such programmatic entities as Los Alamos Laboratory’s “lite labs” with nonprofit entities like The Boys and Girls Club and retail entities such as a coffee shop or restaurant. By positing a mix of uses within the High Street matrix, a diverse user group is formed. Zydeco intends, in a similar way as Gehry Partners did when planning the Strata Center at MIT; Bring the scientists down from their research offices into shared public spaces that engender the cross pollination of ideas; to create a dynamic mix of uses in lieu of a mono- culture of sterility. The shopping mall is replaced, in part, with educational opportunities that highlight the best and brightest aspects from other uses at Midtown and the City at large.

Vicenza, Italy offers powerful examples of how buildings define a pedestrian street that predate the automobile, where shops occupy the ground floors with housing above. In certain areas, Vicenza’s narrow streets are scaled for the pedestrian with secondary consideration given to modern transportation design requirements. Deliveries, for example, are by push carts or mini vehicles manufactured for such an environment. Automobile use is restricted. In this sense, Zydeco’s vision for High Street is designed with pedestrian scale as a central theme to engender a place of connectivity. Close knit and intimate, the buildings stand like soldiers in formation to one another with sheltering portal spaces that keep inclement weather and sun at bay. In some ways, High Street can be considered a dispersion—similar to the park concept—along an intimate street designed to foster conversation and chance meetings between great and budding minds within the community.

The large “Central Park” concept is a compelling urban element, especially as a figure in the landscape. The challenge with this type of centralization is it becomes bounded and isolated from other parts of what constitutes Midtown’s sizeable development of land with approximately 3,000 inhabitants. According to the “Park and Open Space Classifications and Facility Guidelines, Appendix B,” community parks require approximately five acres of land for a population of 1,000 inhabitants. Neighborhood parks and mini parks require a smaller plot, typically between a quarter and one-acre areas. Zydeco’s design approach diffuses the park area of approximately 15 acres, into four types of green/ open space: The Ribbon Park, the Loop Park the Courtyard and Adjacent Green Space

The Ribbon Park

The Ribbon Park unwinds and unravels a large park area into a lengthy, continuous, and flowing ribbon of park space weaving together multiple districts in a shared experience of this powerful and rejuvenating design feature. It is noted the Ribbon Park is also an interstitial space— void of sorts— which is intentionally positioned between districts to blur the boundaries that share this recreational space of repose. This interstitial space is programed primarily as recreation, offering large nodal areas of park, play and rest and smaller nodes of the same. Recreation is calculated to undo the exhaustion from work, replenishing energy and abilities consumed at work. The intent of the Ribbon Park is to unify spaces within and conterminous to districts into a recreational system of immediate adjacency. The resulting Ribbon Park totaling 714,373 sq. ft. in area, can also rise and fall, be positioned above or below grade level to create overlooks into event spaces or courtyards. Spatially, the Ribbon Park can be raised for elevated viewing into the Art Park or other important nodal locations. Under the elevated Ribbon Park, the City Center and the Film Districts collide and fuse together without borders. These types of spatial adjacencies are conceived as platforms for socializing and watching, like the High Line Park in New York City. Parades too, can be marshaled along these pathways, gathering to create spectacles of celebration or solemn remembrances, all within the grasp of the proposed development.

The Ribbon Park is a logical corollary to the bike and pedestrian paths— or vis versa— since both tend to be linear in function and can share mutually in scenic development defining their paths.

Linear parks are not new to urban design and one need only look to the recent past to find examples of this type of park design. We envision the Ribbon Park originating along Saint Michaels Drive near High Street on the Thomas property. The ribbon, as a greensward, accommodates bicycles and pedestrian movement and is programmed with many different types of functions. In places where adjacent to housing, it is a playground, an exercise trail, and place for reflection. Where it is situated between the Film District and the City Center District, the ribbon widens (tidal edges that expand and contract) to a large outdoor foyer serving the adjacent amphitheater and an IMAX Theater entrances.

Between Districts Two and Seven, the Ribbon Park is planned to widen once again, this time swelling to a place accommodating large events. The Ribbon Park continues through the development until linking with the existing Franklin E. Miles Park and its ball fields and recreational uses. From this point, the potential connections to the spider network of bike and hike trails becomes a matter of political will.

The Loop Park is a 1.5-mile loop that is located at the perimeter of the Midtown development and positioned adjacent to the contiguous properties outside the Midtown plan. The Loop Trail is designed to connect with existing city bike trails and intersect with the Ribbon Park providing bike and pedestrian circulation into the City Center District. A developing type of park is the parklet; a micro park that is typically an extension off a sidewalk or running path. Studies have shown parklets provide increased visibility by creating an inviting atmosphere and more active street life’ and when paired with bicycle parking, they can draw more visitors than a vehicular parking space. Because parklets can provide for the posting of community events or notices, as well as the display of artwork, they are natural attractors for attention. At restaurants with long queues, they retain waiting customers by providing a pleasant space to past time. The Loop Park with its mini parks and parklets create a dispersed open space for the general public in multiple locations.

Semi-Private Green space and green roofs. Within the terraced building concept architectural opportunities include bringing the indoors out and the outdoors in. The exterior spaces can be enclosed or open, hardscape or softscape, all with the intention of connecting people with their natural surroundings.

Where outdoor rooms are located within multifamily housing structures, their use is primarily private open space attached to corresponding units. When exterior rooms are semiprivate within housing developments intended for inhabitants, the exterior room are open spaces featuring amenities that are paired with living spaces to raise the quality of experience. In some locations in the development, Zydeco envisions the use of green roofs, such as at the City Center dormitory and its roof as dedicated relax space for students.

Zydeco’s treatment of park space in sync the City’s 25-year sustainable plan by enhancing the connectivity of greenbelt and habitat corridors across the community. As a green space, the approach to parks increases opportunity for carbon sequestration in plants and soils and increases carbon sequestration in general.

The Nature of Courtyards

Luis Barragan one quipped “A courtyard should contain not less than the entire universe.” The Zydeco proposal incorporates courtyards as areas of natural light, ventilation, view, public and private space in varying sizes, shapes and colors. Courtyards in this fair city, are simply sine qua non to Zydeco’s theorizing of Midtown as a Place, a place for Santa Fe to begin again. This conception of the courtyard embellished by Santa Fe’s moderate sessional climate with 283-days of sunshine per annum. Couple sunshine with protection and shelter from weather and one quickly realizes Santa Fe’s Historic Plaza with its protecting portals and sheltering canopies and wind buffering buildings, creates a special plaza that is the City’s Grande Salle. Zydeco intends to continue this architectural language to Midtown, where courtyards occur often and a varying scale that are relevant in the places they occur. Across all districts within the development, there is 438,473 square feet of “at grade” space dedicated to courtyard type development and use. The Visual Arts Center by Richard Legorreta, continues this spatial concept, thereby referencing the character of Casa Sena and other classic examples found in multiple places throughout Santa Fe. Midtown seek to repeat this successful iteration of the exterior room.

Creating exterior rooms in the form of courtyards or other spaces invite us to be outdoors is another aspect of Zydeco’s design objective—in some cases, they become a destination. Zydeco believes that architectural space extending beyond the confines of the building’s heated space is an important step to create continuity of form—indoor and outdoor space— and the total environment of the Place. Zydeco’s observations that living closer to nature instructs us on how to live with nature. This symbiotic relationship can also help better construct responsible development that wisely shepherds natural resources. Enjoyment of Santa Fe’s fine weather is an open invitation to the multiplicity of advantages gained by this type of space making.

Green Space Adjacencies

Laying just outside Midtown’s development property is the General Franklin E Miles Park and State land that has been incorporated in the Midtown development scope because of linking opportunities that could further extend and enrich Midtowns current “green scope”. On the State land, Zydeco locates an 181,500 sq. ft. soccer pitch to broaden recreational opportunities at the existing park. The existing park is reduced in size from 1,249,094 sq. ft. to 975,085 sq. ft. (After reduction due to area claimed by the soccer pitch and new Ribbon Park.) yet stands to benefit from the Midtown development.

As mentioned elsewhere in this writing, is the continuation of the Ribbon Park to and through the Thomas property. What is particularly exciting is trading derelict use and asphaltic concrete for green space. Because the new Milagro magnet school is adjacent to the Ribbon Park, the park’s shared use is highly likely and certainly championed to occur.

Of All Things, Trees?

The proposed Midtown Santa Fe development retains the existing trees—there are over 200-usuable trees on the property—to root the Midtown Santa Fe development in time and Place. Since many trees are more than forty years old, they are irreplaceable and provide shade and express a valued amenity during the rebuilding of the campus and beyond. These existing trees are vital to creating a feeling that the Midtown is anchored in time and not entirely new and without reference. As the existing trees age and begin to die off, a planned replacement over an extended period time would take place to assure continuity of place and a continuation of the amenity. Protecting the existing site trees is part of the Environmental Emblem of this development fostering, preserving and celebrating Santa Fe’s natural character.

Retaining the existing trees meets the spirit of the City’s 25-year plan in that preserving the trees enhances local ecological resilience of the existing native ecosystems, ensuring the Midtown development supports and restores ecological processes, including carbon sequestration.

Art Park

Contiguous to the Film District is the “Midtown Walls”, a place where muralists have an opportunity to express at an unusually large scale. The “Midtown Walls” is really a series of walls on multiple buildings, dedicated to the display of large format mural painting. The location of “Midtown Walls” is intentionally adjacent to the Ribbon Park. It is noted throughout the county, events like “Open Walls” in Sacramento, CA, “CANVAS Outdoor Museum Show” in West Palm Beach, FL and “Life is Beautiful Festival” in Las Vegas, NV are just a few cities that have taken art to the streets. Whether it is a political piece by Bansky or other artist expressions, the integration of art and park together create visual events along the Ribbon Park broadening the experience of its users.

Wynnwood Walls in Miami, FL pings over 2.5 million visitors annually

“Midtown Walls” are intended to make a year-round destination and similar to how “Wynwood Walls” is a destination in Miami. As previously mentioned, Zydeco envisions cross branding opportunities with Meow Wolf at the “Midtown Walls.”

The Art Park is enlivened by the adjacent Ribbon Park and its programmatic spaces. Where the Art Park and the Ribbon Park intersect is an opportunity for social entanglement, creating unforeseen episodes of coincidence and spontaneity.

Density, Terraced Buildings, Overlooks and Architectural Color

The City’s programming objective is to provide more housing opportunities with a focus on multifamily housing. It is no coincidence multifamily housing is preferred given a developing national trend away from single family housing. This trend begins with changes to current zoning regulations. A shift away from single family residential housing stems from a development phenomenon where land is literally being lost. Single family homes are increasing in size to keep pace with current demands and the home plot, too, are increasing in size, and rendering both the house and the land more expensive.

Recently, the Minneapolis City Council approved a long-term plan for development, Minneapolis 2040, making Minneapolis the first major U.S. city to eliminate single-family zoning all together. As the Minneapolis Post writes:

“The move was celebrated by local residents who see increased density as key to the city’s housing inequalities while attracting the attention of the national media and housing-rights activists who think other metros should follow Minneapolis’ lead to increase residential density.”

At the 2019 American Institute of Architects convention in Las Vegas, a seminar entitled “Right to the City” laid bare the negative effects created by single family housing and identifies housing as an important social equity issue. Here are a few strategies that relate to the Midtown development, namely:

1. Develop urban villages and focus around transportation. Create 15-minute walking sheds around centers of development.

2. Provide greater diversity in housing types.

3. Subdivide existing single-family parcels into multiple parcels that allow two or more residential units on the same parcel.

Zydeco’s development plan is rich with diverse housing types designed to increases density. The proposed housing includes multifamily, market rate, affordable, senior and student housing types and designed to increase density. With Zydeco’s plan, the single-family homes are designed as row housing that forfeits large yards for density. Zydeco’s consultant team is expert in the development of multifamily housing and aims to build 300-units of housing every 24-months.

The Zydeco proposal links the building step back requirement with an unlikely, yet logical companion: The Sun. Retaining the presence of natural light where building density is gained through height is a simple matter of geometry and planning. Not only will buildings step back along streets but maximize natural light into the interior of buildings and courtyard spaces. Buildings will be required to step back along a south- north axis to benefit maximum solar gain and natural light considerations.

The terracing of building forms creates opportunities for buildings with articulated massing to not only reinforce a Santa Fe perception of scale but create opportunities for outdoor living adjacent to interior space. From the stepped building form arises the concept of the terrace, which is typically a grander gesture, due in large part, to its scale. Here, the term is reserved for the second floor of the buildings, such as the City Center, where the second-floor joins with a chorus of “wings” to create an overlook into a sizeable plaza below. The phenomenon of looking “into” space below is utilized in various building types throughout the development to maximize the effect of space. Urban vistas, corridors and canyons are words used to describe the spatial quality of the development, some of which are best experienced from overlooks.

Optima Camel View Village Condominiums in Scottsdale, AZ. The terraced roof gardens were at once a relief to the eye and a hit with investors looking for natural light, cooling of temperature and invitation of nature to participate in daily, lofty living.

Within the development itself, the architectural style is likely to be of a contemporary expression, like the melding of midcentury modernism with a distinct desert style found in Scottsdale, AZ or Palm Springs. That is not to say Santa Fe architects do not have their own version of this contemporary style. Regardless of the stylistic impulse, the buildings must respond to the City’s Dimensional Standards for the Midtown LINQ Overlay District, Table 14-5.5-4. This zoning requirement supports the development of terraced building forms and as Leon Krier, one strident voice of New Urbanist principles states, “no development should have buildings taller than four stories.”

Another architectural element is the use of color. Across the planet, communities embrace color as an architectural element that has both meaning and differentiates personal possession. Unlike the core Historic District where an earth tone dominates, Midtown leverages color, either widely used or limited to select building elements that expresses prominence within a District. By codifying districts within the development, each district differentiates itself from other districts and develops through time, its own unique sense of Place.

Richard Legorreta’s Visual Arts Center, when constructed, was an abrupt view of contemporary architecture outside the City Different. It is academic to imagine Santa Fe without the layering of stylistic controls, extending to Cerrillos Road, its Big Box stores and far from historic core to suburban housing communities, such as Eldorado. Nonetheless, Legorreta’s Visual Arts Center offers stylistic relief from the ubiquitous Santa Fe Style and encourages a new vision for Midtown. Briefly, in terms of contemporary architecture, the Legorreta buildings are not as radical as most modern constructions; think of distorted geometries, applications of highly reflective curtain wall or metal paneling; and retain traits found in Santa Fe’s historic style: wall dominated façades with punched openings. Here, the use of color is dominant, invigorating and commands attention.

To create visual ques and formal variety within the districts, colors can be codified to buildings types within each district or, as another variation, color can represent the district, signaling a spatial progression from one district to another. The Olympic Grounds in Munich, Germany, utilized color tubes to guide athletes from their villages to stadium and arenas in and around the complex. As vast as the grounds are, the colored tubes offered simple wayfinding. Proposed use of color on buildings and districts is intended to orient, embellish, enrich, stimulate and mark a sense of Place unique to Midtown.

Iconic Irruption

In urban planning patterns, buildings that mark important intersections, boundaries and positions within the built environment are allotted a special status: their building designs are allowed liberties not granted to their neighboring structures. A few examples of iconic buildings are the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia, The Effie Tower in Paris, France and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

Suspension of ubiquitous architectural guidelines can result in an expressive and memorable building techniques, forms, patterns and materials that define an iconic building. The aim of an Iconic Irruption within a context of similarity is difference that captures the Zeist Geist of the moment and aspires to be timeless. The main purpose for the suspension of the design guidelines is the hope for an iconic building within Midtown that stimulates the “Bilbao Effect”. As Ceren Temel writes in “Bilbao’s Bilbao Effect”:

“According to the financial columns, in its first three years the museum has helped to generate about $500 million in economic activity and about $100 million in new taxes. The opening of the museum brought so much money to Basque treasury in taxes. This represents lots of new jobs. Guggenheim shows that how mayor dynamism can help the city turn around. Bilbao city metamorphosed to a totally new energetic city.”

To achieve a “new energetic city” caused by architecture alone demands an international design competition for entrants to design an icon on a mirror street originating in the City Center District and terminating at a building site in District 2. Incumbent on the entrants is to program the building’s use, explain the costs and funding strategies and design a building that is at once iconic. It is an aspirational objective, to be sure, but one that can establish a new architectural identity alongside the familiar historic buildings the City has thoughtfully maintained through the lens of Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.

  The Paragon of an Environmental Emblem

In reviewing a list of the top sustainable cities across the globe, only three American cities are cited. Not that making this list should be an objective, but rather a result for the time and effort necessary to achieve a truly sustainable development. Zydeco acknowledges the City of Santa Fe’s Sustainable Santa Fe 25-Year Plan and its hegemony on the Midtown Development and beyond. In this section, quoting the City’s Vision Statement is instructive:

“Santa Fe’s Sustainability Vision We envision a thriving community where climate impacts are neutralized, natural resources are abundant and clean, and sustainable economic activity is generated through enhancing social equity and the regenerative capacity of the environment.”

Triple Bottom Line: The environmental, economic and social pillars of sustainability, referred to as the Triple Bottom Line (TBL), are interdependent overlapping concepts. Sustainability means meeting the community’s environmental, economic and social needs without compromising those of future generations. Santa Fe looks to enhance ecological resiliency, which is the ability of ecosystems to withstand, and adapt to, the stressors brought on by climate change and other human activities. Building a vital and diverse economy will help provide a high-quality of life with equitable opportunities for Santa Feans.

A TBL perspective recognizes that all dimensions support one another in creating a sustainable community. The Venn diagram illustrates how the three parts of the triple bottom line work in concert with one another to form a complete system. The categories under each of the three major parts also represent how the working groups were organized. A TBL approach involves looking at problems and opportunities systematically, such as the Sustainable Materials Management and One Water approaches described later in this Sustainable Santa Fe 25-Year Plan.

The New Urbanist ideal aspires to build a sense of community and promote the development of ecological practices. Thus far the concepts for a walkable city have been presented and enforced by the location of goods and services within walking distance to housing, the slowing traffic down and avoiding “short cuts” through the Midtown development, the introduction of ribbon and pedestrian parks, plazas and streets where motorized vehicles are restricted.

Sound principles for storm water and landscaping have also been considered. And, as shown, the results are cumulative on the development precepts. The proposed Midtown development is comprised of buildings that densify the built area. This densification is sensitively accomplished so the accumulative effect does not unravel in-place efforts of achieving a sustainable Midtown development. Part and parcel to this effort includes buildings; their construction assemblies, mechanical and electrical systems and a focus to reducing the overall energy necessary for the community to function. New buildings must contribute and be a responsible part of the overall sustainable effort of Midtown.

In the development of sustainable plan, Zydeco has assembled Pre-development, Construction and Property Management phases that suggest a development process to ensure a sustainable development. The following is a general outline of the proposed process:

Phase I: Environmental Testing

Zydeco is consulting with R. T. Hicks Consultants, LTD, skilled at Phase I and Phase II environmental testing. If awarded Midtown’s Master Developer position, one of a series of initial steps will include the testing of ground water, soils, and building assemblies to identify risk, abatement and proper treatment or disposal of waste products from the site and buildings.

One of a series of initial steps will include the evaluation of the eight Recognized Environmental Conditions (RECs) identified in the Souder/Miller Associates (SMA) 2009 Phase 1. Several of the RECs can be resolved by additional research of building permits, regulatory files or historical photographs. Such additional research is beyond the scope of a Phase 1 and was not conducted by SMA. One REC is due to the possible presence of PCE in an electrical transformer and this is an issue that can be resolved during re-development through testing the transformer or removal of equipment. The four UST sites identified in the SMA report (all USTs have been excavated and removed) will require additional testing, as recommended by SMA. Because the depth to groundwater at the site is about 300 feet, the probability that past leakage from these tanks caused contamination of groundwater is so small as to be nil. Thus, the primary purpose of sampling these four sites is to determine if any soil removal is required to allow planned development and reduce any risks to acceptable levels. The SMA report also identified possible building demolition fill in an arroyo in the areas of Tracts D and possibly in Tracts C and G. Sampling in this area to determine any risks of leaving the buried material in place is necessary to resolve this identified REC.

Phase I: Pre-Development Professional Design Standards

In the race to implement the rapidity of the 25-year Sustainable Plan, Zydeco will leverage existing building certification programs such as the United States Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (herein LEED) programs when considering responsible building efficiencies and levels of certification it will mandate as the Master Developer. To reiterate, the 2030 challenge and the City’s adoption to be carbon neutral by 2040 is a challenging mandate. The LEED rating system is flexible and offers a wide selection of systematic ratings of various building projects. When properly administered and applied, rating systems can assist in meeting the new energy goals. Each approach aims to reduce energy and is best exemplified in the following five categories:

1. Building Design and Construction

The first category, Building Design and Construction contains ten LEED rating systems. These rating systems are guidelines for new buildings and old buildings undergoing major renovations. Schools, hospitals, retail, data centers, warehouses, office buildings, and apartment buildings are all examples of buildings that would fall into this category.

2. Interior Design and Construction

The second category is Interior Design and Construction, which was designed specifically for tenants leasing a portion of a larger building. Interior spaces in commercial buildings, retail, and hospitals would fall into this category. For example, a company leasing commercial office space or for a Starbucks in a strip center would pursue this option.

3. Building Operations and Maintenance

The third category is Building Operations and Maintenance, which can be used by building owners and operators to measure operations and maintenance as well as make minor improvements. Schools, hospitals, retail, data centers, and warehouses can fall into this category.

4. LEED for Homes

The fourth category is LEED for Homes, which was specifically designed for single and multi-family residential structures that are three stories or less. LEED for Homes is modeled after the Environmental Protection Agency’s successful ENERGY STAR for Homes program and became available to the public in 2008. It applies to single- and multi-family residential units up to three stories tall.

5. LEED for Neighborhood Development

The fifth and final category is LEED for Neighborhood Development, which integrates the principles of smart growth, urbanism, and green building into the first national program for neighborhood design.

Zydeco intends to combine these LEED initiatives with the City’s Green Building Code and other related code requirements or programs that assist when clarifying building standards at Midtown.

Phase I: Recognizing Existing and Emerging Municipal Codes and Standards

The City of Santa Fe developed a Residential Green Building Code over a decade ago, which is a testament to the City’s progressive stance on the environment and a demonstration of its commitment to a greener future. This existing Residential Green Building Code applies to new construction of single family and townhouses. The City has shown commitment in supporting a national trend aimed at energy independence and sustainable development. Recently, the City is poised to further advance its green initiative— by the time Midtown development begins, the City will have likely adopt a new code revision— and expand the existing green building code to include multifamily development. This is considered a substantive step since the occurrence of multifamily increasingly common and on a larger development scale. The proposed green building code requires new construction to meet a HERS (Home Energy Rating Score) of 60 (this translates into 40 percent less energy consumption than a 2006 code built home) and requires a WERS (Water Efficiency Rating Score) rating of 70 and mechanical ventilation. With the addition of multifamily residential to the green building code, the City both anticipates a shift in the type of housing being constructed and assures said housing will meet the same energy conservation measures demanded of single family construction.

Phase I: Considerations of Efficiencies

To avoid redundancy in listing what is required by municipal, state and international codes, LEED, and WERS, listed here are a few novel ideas that could make a difference in the foreseeable Midtown development:

1. Measures of Sustainable Goals taken from Arcadis rating of sustainable cities:

Profit: The profit factor measures the value of real estate and the ease of starting and running businesses. With 20% of the built housing as affordable housing type, the proposed Midtown plan aims at ameliorating social equity issues within the current housing market.

People: The people index focuses on the living standard of the people, literacy, education, and health. A large part of the Midtown development plan is poised to introduce new educational and opportunities and alliances for Santa Fe.

Planet: The planet factor focuses on transportation, water, sanitation, air pollution, and carbon emission among other factors. Midtown’s unique geographic position with the existing City is transformative; walkable communities that are constructed to standards that aim to achieve the City’s sustainable 25-year plan.

2. Scaled-up energy efficiency:

a. Reduction of life cycle costs in buildings and infrastructure: Includes the consideration of building orientation, stepping of a building’s height for greater solar exposure and natural light, a well insulted building shell with moisture protection, triple glazed windows, and protective overhangs are just a few considerations when aiming to reduce a building’s life cycle cost. Zydeco’s team has direct experience with Trombe walls, photovoltaic and thermal solar panels, wind turbines and geothermal wells to name a few of on-site energy generation systems it could apply when factoring in the development of district and individual building energy systems.

b. Provide the installation of infrastructure to accommodate future energy features. An example of this is the use of empty conduits into the site and to building locations that eliminate costly repairs to replace communication systems and existing utility infrastructure;

c. Partnerships with solar companies to implement affordable solar arrays on new buildings for a clean energy landscape and leverage available rebates and paying through property taxes with programs like PACE— Property Assessed Clean Energy Bonds;

Community Choice or Community Solar are charged terms that bristle with political contest. That acknowledged, the distribution concepts offer Midtown an exciting energy semi-independence. Simply stated, Community Solar for example, shares energy derived within a development with occupants within the same development and an option to sell back to the grid. The importance of Community Solar is not lost on timing, as over two million California inhabitants recently lost electrical service, challenging both the individual homeowner and institutions alike. One reason for this on-going catastrophe is the changing climate, which everyone is vulnerable. On-site generation of electrical and thermal energy is an intelligent solution to immediacy and dependency.

3. Scaled-up connectivity related ideas:

a. Harnessing of the Internet of Things (herein: IoT) especially because of demanding needs of institutional and business classes requiring a high-quality digital infrastructure for medical services or the film industry.

b. Development of Midtown as a Smart City Center that builds on the City’s smart utility metering and sanitary systems, intelligent traffic signals, Wi-Fi kiosks and the like to augment these existing services aimed at reducing waste and resource use and costs.

c. Corporate vendors such as Google and Amazon are entering the construction market with smart applications that range from the contents in the refrigerator to home security systems.

d. Leveraging Smart systems to assist with traffic and parking as data shows 30 percent of traffic congestion is related to simply finding a parking space, according to the Intelligent Transportation Society of America.

e. Hardware that allows the integration of cameras and LED streetlights into one convenient bundle.

4. Scaled-up sanitation ideas:

a. Recycling as a base requirement for the programmed uses found within Midtown;

b. Utilize the educational component to assist with a community outreach educational programs building awareness about pollution and recycling;

5. Scaled-up water related ideas:

a. Please refer to the El Agua es Vida section of this proposal

Phase II: Construction

The management of Midtown construction is not a simple matter left to one party, the general contractor, to perform. In fact, it will consume valuable time from several design and review entities to assure the built product complies with the intended design objectives. Nested within the LEED system, for example, are a series checklists and information sheets that are dependent on the interagency of the Team; the design professional, the contractor and an independent third-party verifying agent. This tripartite relationship demands all three disciplines partake in the verification of the built work that complies with the intention of the design. The City of Santa Fe too, has its own review process that certifies the building for occupancy. It is important to stress the team approach when considering substantial construction projects such as Midtown. Part of the LEED certification requirements places emphasis on the pre-design work and the importance of identifying construction performance objectives and how said objectives are constructed and tested. Identifying the objectives and implementing a construction critical path to achieve said objectives is key. There must be Team buy-in when constructing such as project because LEED type programs aim to meet conservation in energy and water for more sustainable and healthier living environments.

In brief, complying with LEED checklists includes the construction management of material purchasing to keep waste within a range of limits. General contractor’s mange recyclables and aim to reduce landfill waste to the greatest extent as possible. As a potential construction advantage, modular building design; the use of prefabricated walls and even bathroom modules; is leveraged to reduce construction build time while reducing construction waste. Construction waste management, the reuse of construction debris, recycling and use of smart building strategies form a strong offensive position when tackling the negative offsets of construction. Related site management tactics suggest the use of BIM and powerful construction management tools that leverage time and materials to limit construction waste. The use of solar generators while on-site contribute to a safer site environment due to acoustics and the impact loud noise has on hearing and general awareness of dangerous site conditions. Rigorous compliance with SWIPP mandates must be commonplace and expected; controlled construction pollution management by vehicle stations, waste locations, and preventing water runoff from the site constitute contributions to clean site requirements.

Safeguarding the Indoor Air Quality is a significant consideration when constructing such a high density of housing. Methods implemented by the general contractor during construction assures that Indoor Air Quality standards will be met at the conclusion of the construction phase. Working to this end, preventive measures such as sealing duct work after its installation is a simple and effective safeguard, reducing construction debris inside the duct. Testing exhaust fans and kitchen hoods during construction allows the general contractor to remedy the deficiency without costly and messy renovation should said system fail to meet ASHRAE ventilation requirements. Of course, follow up testing and verifiable reporting at the end of construction by a third-party professional is critical to meeting the design and performance standards set forth in the initial stages of building planning and design.

Phase III: Property Management

The Property management of buildings is considered a part of the delivery chain necessary for the wise stewardship of buildings and resources. Working to this end, Zydeco’s team of skilled property managers understand the maintenance and replacement of systems is an important step in retaining economic and resource value in buildings. The management of buildings is accomplished, in part, with an educated homeowner. A Homeowner’s Manual is an effective tool to educate and track annual maintenance and replacement schedules. A well-considered building recycling program that complies and changes to the standards set forth by the City are well understood. Efficient sanitation routes and pick-up locations are addressed during pre-design development and implemented in the post-occupancy phase. The commissioning of mechanical systems, a building ventilation flush and a final cleaning of the building will prepare the indoor environment for healthy occupancy. Property management roles extend from the maintenance of building to social sphere too, regulating security and related tenant issues aim to create relaxation and sow harmony, to the greatest extent possible.

El Agua es Vida

The image of the fountain at the San Cristobal Stable by Luis Barragan is Poetic. Poetics in architecture is a term that is applicable when a building, an element of construction or a small detail transcends the mundane and rises to a higher degree of consideration, typically resulting in a heighten awareness of the object. The Poetic device in Barragan’s creation is the fountain, as the structure celebrates both the still, moving and revivifying display of water. How often has one overheard a Santa Fean praise the summer monsoons as a gift from the heavens? And why not? Moisture in this high desert community has an intrinsic value that people highly prize. The presence of water is the difference between insect infestation and water starving softscape verses a verdant show of life in the same. People are friendlier, kinder and express a general disposition of relief for another day of moisture’s gift: Life.

“Water is to be celebrated, managed, carefully consumed and not wasted.” Within Zydeco’s Midtown mantra, the approach to water management focuses on capturing, directing and reusing storm water and applied to the entire development. Borrowing a lesson from Bill Mollison’s “Permaculture, A Designer’s Manual”, by simply slowing surface water prevents erosion and proves an intelligent way to absorbing water into soil.

Given the proposed density of Midtown, the thinking on storm water runoff has multiple considerations and events from which to formulate an overall strategy preventing flooding and reflects wise stewardship of this precious natural resource. The following are a few considerations for surface storm water runoff:

Below Grade Storm Water Discharge Strategies:

Storm water and the Pumice Wick: The Ribbon Park with its numerous green belts is a likely place to store and distribute water below the surface of green areas. Of course, the area of turf is limited per LEED requirements of percentage to the whole, which is another landscape consideration. The large park between Districts 2 and 7 allow for water storage and distribution, as well as the City Center Plaza spaces where subgrade storm water storage is essential. The precedent for this strategy is the City’s own MRC development, where key members of Zydeco’s Design Team intended the soccer fields to be irrigated using a pumice wick, keeping them green and reducing the amount actual irrigation piping— read maintenance—and reducing the evaporation rate unlike center pivot irrigation systems.

Storm water and below grade cisterns: Buried cisterns below grade is an ancient strategy of storing water during drought. In this application, water can be stored in polyethylene tanks until needed for irrigation.

Storm water and below grade retention devices: Water socks or absorptive devices that hold and release water slowly back into the ground is another way storm water can be controlled. Recently, at a Zydeco Development, buried water holding and releasing devices were installed in lieu of above ground tanks or retention ponds. Above grade ponding pose a myriad of problems such as vector control issues and unsightly catch areas for windblown trash.

Storm water and permeable pavers: About the Districts, Zydeco is considering the use of permeable surfaces that absorb storm water to reduce the amount being captured in downstream basins. To the greatest extent possible, the use of these paving systems is relegated to minor streets and sidewalks, walking surfaces under portals and pedestrian and bicycle paths. Working in a hierarchical manner, the more traffic, the greater the likelihood it will be a paved surface relying on curb and gutter and storm water inlets for water capture.

Above Grade Storm Water Discharge Strategies:

Roof generated storm water and the architectural folly: As a built expression celebrating water, above ground water tanks in the form of “architectural follies” are placed throughout the development; some are located in prominent locations at major intersections while others are hidden from the street or view altogether. These follies can be a rich source of visual and sensual relief, as the folly structure doubles as an urban marker that enhances the urban scape while providing auditory, visual and sensual relief from particularly warm summer days.

Storm water and the use of existing ditches and parking lot edges with bio swales:

With this storm water catchment system, is the pairing of linear elements; linear running paths, parking strips and existing ditches that lend a helpful hand in controlling storm water runoff. Bioswales are linear channels designed to concentrate and convey storm water runoff while removing debris and pollution. Bioswales can also be beneficial in recharging groundwater. Of interest is the opportunity to provide “double functioning” design features that beautify as well as provide utility when controlling storm water. A bio swale is such a device that captures surface water runoff and through retainage, delays the water from release into impervious surfaces. The timed delay is critical and now a design requirement to prevent flooding. Another salient advantage of a bios wale is the treatment of pollutants and natural removal of sediment and debris from the storm water.

Storm water and the acequia:

The history of the acequia in Northern New Mexico should not be overlooked as a poetic device that deliveries water to agrarian areas. A functional, yet poetic devise that instills a connection to the land and its need for water. A walk down along the Acequia Madre (mother ditch) is a thrilling experience Santa Feans know too well. At Midtown, an acequia is planned through the property and functions mainly as a storm water collection device, funneling storm water to catch basins, park areas or underground storage tanks where the water can be held, absorbed or released over time.

Water Strategies for Individual Building:

LEED and WERS: Within reach of design professionals are the relatively new measures addressing the consumption and distribution of water in buildings. It seems people are awaking to the importance of this resource. Through these programs, water is another component of a growing list of resources to be managed during the building design phase.

Phasing of a Development Theory into Construction

The initial phase of development kicks off by taking advantage of the “Ready to Proceed” approach that leverages existing infrastructure to the greatest extent while remaining pliable to the overall theory of development. The “Ready to Proceed” is intentionally geared to reduce the City’s tax burden and reactivate the parcel’s temporary obsolescence while establishing planning of the forthcoming development phases.

Phase 1 Development Goals (24 months):

1. Retain the greatest extent of the existing infrastructure while initiating the development vision;

a. Commence the planning and execution of architectural, civil, landscape, environmental, traffic, fire and infrastructure disciplines with an aim to be in front of the consequent construction phases for their laminar completion, review, approval and construction.

b. Retention of or modification to the existing infrastructure.

c. Retain the existing tree canopy, to the greatest extent possible.

d. Retain key buildings identified for historic importance, location, serviceability and on-going usefulness to the existing and proposed development plan. Conduct assessment reports and an evaluation with recommendations for repurposing.

e. Demolish existing buildings and structures not retained by the proposed development plan;

f. The existing Fogelson gym complex is turned over to the City for use.

g. The Visual Arts Center continues to operate with access maintained.

h. Infrastructure improvements:

i. Work with City departments to develop a mass transportation route through and conterminous to the campus, better integrating public transportation to, in and around the proposed development;

ii. Plan and place underground utilities that affect future use while “future proofing” rapid technological utility planning and infrastructure.

Phase 2 Development Goals (48 months):

1. During this phase the development of the campus establishes a City Center and follows strategic steps ensuring vibrant participation of current and new user groups while initiating housing construction:

a. Construction of the City Center that includes education facilities and dorms on upper floors while serving the general public on the ground level. Located within the main plaza that is larger than the downtown plaza, is a historic structure and a symbolic link to Santa Fe’s past;

b. Commence the expansion of the film studio district with the addition of two new film studios and supporting infrastructure requirements;

c. Renovation of the Fogelson Library to a 21st-century library and the establishment of an institutional presence in the City Center;

d. Renovation of the Garson Theatre;

e. Re-locate the entrance into the property as shown on mapping page # ) with the aim to announce the new “front door” to the Midtown Campus Project;

f. Commence building 300-units of housing to serve the developing campus and increasing daily use, of which 60-units are affordable type. Said units can serve multiple functions and include short- and long-term housing conditions serving both the burgeoning film district and the community’s immediate need by offering a variety of types such as mixed use/ market and affordable housing types;

g. Infrastructure improvements:

i. Build the two primary main roads and related infrastructure (High Street—the Cardo Maximus North-South axis and Alumni Drive— Decumanus Maximus East-West axis); that serve the new development. Although portions of said proposed roads are existing, due to the increase in density and impervious area, analysis and modifications to increased weight capacity, sewer and storm water systems will constitute part of the infrastructure upgrades discussed in related portions of this proposal. For additional information, please refer to section Environmental Emblem for additional details;

ii. Initiate the connection of existing bike and pedestrian routes that bring opportunity to experience the campus;

iii. Along the bike route, initiate the construction of the Ribbon and Loop parks that further develop into “primary nodal locations” in later phases of development.

Phase 3 Development Goals (72 months):

1. During this phase, Midtown builds a hotel along Saint Michaels Drive and continue to build housing.

a. Continue to expand the film studio district with the addition of two new buildings and supporting roads and parking requirements.

b. Commence building 120-units of senior and 200-units of row housing;

c. The hospitality sector is developed and anchored at the northeast corner of the site by a large hotel.

d. Construct a new IMAX Theatre within the City Center District (see the district mapping page # ).

e. Construct the amphitheater.

Phase 4 Development Goals (96 months):

2. 1. During this phase, the film studios are completed, High Street commences construction and continue to build housing.

a. During this phase, Midtown completes the film studio work in its entirety and continues to build housing.

b. Commence building 300-units of multifamily dedicated to serving the community, of which 60-units are affordable type housing.

c. Construction of High Street that includes multifamily and programmatic, nonprofit and retail spaces on the ground and second floors.

d. Completion of the film studios, offices and mill.

e. Hold a competition for an iconic building to mark a mirror street axis within the development.

Phase 5 Development Goals (120 months):

1. During this final phase, Midtown Santa Fe is fully operational and realizes the development goals and objectives of the City.

a. Commence building the final phase of 300-units of multifamily dedicated to serving the community, of which 60-units are affordable type housing;

b. Construct an iconic building in District II that marks the terminus of a mirror street originating in the City Center;

c. Make final park connections to the new development included in this phase.

ARCHITECTURAL WRITING SAMPLE, A NEW YORK CONDOMINIUM

Leroy Street Design Narrative

 Architectural Design By Richard Yates, AIA

Narrative Shaping and Editing By Aaron Bohrer, AIA

“The aspirational design objective for the Leroy Street project reflects today’s bold geometric forms coupled with a collected memory that recalls New York City’s historic neighborhoods”

 Richard Yates, AIA

 Undertaking new development, post pandemic, on an intimate site in the West Village certainly demands thoughtful consideration. For the purposes of providing a design narrative, (5) primary design considerations are herein referenced, building use and floor area ratio (FAR herein), zoning setbacks, site design and building design. Through the lens of these five rubrics, this narrative describes site and building design to better parse the unique challenges found within each. A clear understanding of these rubrics logically presents the underlying design considerations that uniquely reflect the proposed designs’ primary characteristics.  In summary, the design intent deftly mirrors the neighborhood’s existing street character, which is then juxtaposed with the design’s bold and soaring form, aspiring to be an unforgettable New York City architectural landmark. 

 BUILDING USE AND FAR

To achieve both an architectural landmark contribution and a feasible development pro forma, a variance changes the as-by-right use from M1-5 Manufacturing to Mixed-use, which is in sync with successful and broader market development patterns in both the neighborhood and throughout the region. As-by-right development limits development economic feasibility, as Storage and Manufacturing require less expensive land costs than the current property value and does not allow residential use. In addition to the change in use, a FAR 7 is required and will provide the needed density for an economic return. Even if a variance is granted for residential use on the site, the existing FAR and setbacks severely limit the feasibility of development. A market study for hospitality using the existing FAR was commissioned. In that study, it was determined only 50 hotel rooms could be accommodated making that use  financially unfeasible. Since the hospitality study was conducted , there is recent legislation requiring specific approvals for hospitality. The point here is that even if hospitality were a possibility, the existing FAR would decisively render development unfeasible.

 By changing building use, building FAR, and the sky plane setbacks, the proposed design effectively expands the site and buildable envelope possibilities, maximizing development opportunities, and unfolds the raw potential evidenced in this highly creative landmark building design. The resulting architectural design originates with these primary suppositions, which drive the corresponding site, floor plan, and sectional organizations, while remaining focused on a financially successful development project.

 SETBACKS AND SITE DESIGN

The size of the subject site, 50’-0” by 101’-9” or 5,596.25 square feet, is a very small parcel of land, even by New York City standards. In addition to the limited lot area, prescriptive zoning and building code restrictions further limit development. In concert, the prescriptive restrictions and limited lot area establish the as-by-right building envelop, which the resulting design seeks to leverage while creating a development advantage; additonal FAR, relaxing of setback requirements, and change of use as necessary steps to assure a feasible project. The following line items are an iteration of these limits, and the proposed adaptations and modifications incorporated in the proposed design.

 a.      Front Yard Setback: 49’-0” from the Street Wall to the centerline of Leroy Street. This requirement positions the building facade at the Leroy Street property line, thusly maximizes the building area to the property line.

b.     Rear Yard Setback: 20’-0” for natural light and air. Although there is a 1,100 square feet reduction to the buildable area this requirement creates space for natural light and air from the adjacent building, especially at the lower residential levels of the proposed building.

c.      East Side Yard Setback: No minimum requirement*. There is a multistoried Federal Express Warehouse along the subject property’s east property line. Should Federal Express move their facility in the future, a new and much taller building could be built along the eastern property line, rendering the subject site’s access to light and air severely restricted or eliminated. The east wall is therefore designed as a solid 4-hour fire resistant wall. Since the building core (elevators and stairway) does not require natural light, it is situated on the east side of the building.

d.     West Side Yard Setback: No minimum requirement*. Because 160 Leroy is setback off the west property line of the subject site, access to light and air can be captured in the residential floor plans including a light well at the side and rear of the property. A new building elevation within 8-feet of a property line cannot have operable openings and fixed openings require special fireproof glazing unless the existing adjacent building is 60-feet from the opening. Therefore, at the commercial section of the building (cellar and level 1) the conditioned envelope is pulled back 10’-0” from the western property line to meet city building code requirements for operable glazed openings. The residential section, however, is taken to the property line, per the footnote describing the opening protections required for this condition to be as-by-right.

e.      The street wall is limited to 85’-0” above Leroy Street and the sky plane setback starts at 85’-0” at a 2.7 vertical to 1 horizontal slope. The envelope design originates with respect to existing neighborhood building profiles.  Using the 160 Leroy Street precedent, the subject site’s closest neighbor, sets the proposed design envelop height at 155’-0” with no sky plane setback. The proposed building elevations, however, are mostly not parallel to either the rear, front or west property lines, like 160 Leroy’s sinuously shaped facade street walls.

f.      The subject site is located within FEMA Flood Zone D, requiring a minimum elevated first floor 18” above Leroy Street.

 *Although there is a not a side yard setback requirement, all openings are limited to 10% of the wall area per floor and shall be fixed and include fireproof glazing to be considered as-of-right for R2 and R3 uses. It is also noted that the building shall meet current NFPA fire protection standards and have a full equipped sprinkler system.

 Since the subject site is not a large or a corner site but instead, situated between and surrounded on three sides by large residential and industrial buildings, there is but one public access off Leroy Street. This “inner block” condition demands that all building-related services and building exits are directly located off Leroy Street, a Public Way.

BUILDING DESIGN

The building design is broken into a tri-parti of three vertical uses (sections) and a mechanical roof top; the cellar and first floor level are dedicated to commercial use, with building utilities entering at the cellar level. The second level is dedicated to an exterior roof terrace. The third through twelfth levels are dedicated for residential condominiums. Mechanical, fire suppression equipment, stair, and elevator bulk heads form the roof landscape. The commercial section differentiates itself from the residential section, namely with historic architectural references from Manhattan’s industrial past. The residential architectural section is highly structural with its muscular base; a three-legged stool so to speak; that is placed strategically above and through the historic commercial façade and functions located at the cellar and first floor levels.

 Building Form

 The notable rotation or twist of the building, highly evidenced in the residential section, accomplishes two aspirational design objectives. First, it angles the western wall away from the property line, allowing openings with a greater than ten-foot setback requirement to be operable and without special glazing. Secondly, the “parabolic form generated by the rotation of successive floors” allows light and air to reach the lower floors, an invaluable necessity. The same parabolic curve occurs on the south side for increased natural light and air to reach the level 2 roof terrace. 

 The lower section of the building’s iconic detailing at the garden and Level 1 creates a streetscape, recalling the historic character of the West Village. The modern parabolic walls that rise from this historic stylobate, make a striking contrast between the two eras, edifying the concept that the upper floors have grown out of the historic building, like e The Standard High Line Hotel, at 848 Washington Street. Level 1 setbacks allow natural light and air to Leroy Street and pay homage to the open space created by 160 Leroy Street. The sloping parabolic walls are unique to New York, creating visual tension, especially relative to neighboring extruded rectangular building forms. The one exception is 160 Leroy Street.

 The design of the roof line intentionally avoids a typical high-rise flat roof condition with a mechanical screen, like 160 Leroy Street.  At the top of the building, the floor plate at level 12 diminishes in size. This level’s diminished floor area allows for level 11 to have a double height living room space under the sloping roof over level 12 and continues to enclose the living space for level 12. The roofing material is turned down onto the walls, appearing as if a rectangular box form is placed on the north side of the building. A similar box form sits on the south side to enclose the bedrooms on level 12. The space left between the two boxes creates another outdoor terrace. When placed together, the multiple intersecting box forms reflect shapes and profiles more commonly seen in Paris roofscapes. A rectangular form conceals the water tank, mechanical units, and elevator bulkhead on level 13 and 14.

 Commercial Use

In the proposed design, commercial use is relegated to the cellar and first floor. The cellar level (garden level herein) is 10’-8” below grade. To make this subterranean level more attractive for leasing (read natural light and air), the Level 1 floor plate is reduced in length and width, intentionally creating a void at the front and along the side and toward the rear of the building. These two “voids” conjoin to create green areas that are open to natural light and air from above. At the rear of the building, a gym and yoga room are situated along the greenspace void. The greenspace void at the front of the building is also strategically placed, aimed at creating a dramatic building entry that overlooks the garden level below. This sectional condition mimics the masterful design for the Whitney Museum, located on 75th and Madison Avenue by 20th Century Bauhaus Architect, Marcel Breuer. Breuer’s design effectively separates the museum building from the street with a semiprivate plaza, one level below the street level, a special rarity among Manhattan’s ubiquitous building street wall.  With the building entries positioned 11’-0” back from Leroy Street, two independent entry walkways connect the street and the building, each shouldering the entry void below. Hence, the design recalls Breuer’s precedent, and when entering the Leroy building views are directed to the Garden Level. The commercial entry façade with its historic arched openings is designed as a ubiquitous, industrial era palimpsest evidenced throughout lower Manhattan.

 Level 1 is elevated two feet above the street to meet and exceed FEMA flood level projections. Because Level 1 is elevated above Leroy Street, the commercial access is via an ADA compliant ramp. Level 1 also serves as the condominium entry lobby and its access is by a small pedestrian lift. The residential elevators are on the east side and project into the commercial space on the west side.  Encore, there are several architectural details that echo buildings and materials from historic New York. Each of the commercial and residential entries are stone clad and present familiar archways found on brownstone buildings throughout the boroughs. In the rear and west of Level 1, the floor is pulled away from the west property line by ten feet. The architectural detailing in this section echoes the cast iron building facades found in Soho, marked by their cast iron columns, and oversized display windows.

 From Leroy Street, there is a massive structural column rising to the third-floor super structure above but originating from the garden level below. This muscular structural expression looms above the level 2 roof terrace to the underside of level 3, which is read as an exterior ceiling. Moving upward, exterior residential balconies successively cantilever from one to seven feet into Leroy Street Right-of-Way, as the northwest building corner slowly angles over the viewer, creating the sensation the building stands with magical powers. Another massive structural column supports the southwest corner of the building where the west and south walls also slope over the viewer.  The window openings in the parabolic skin, given their variable wall thickness, create irregular shaped geometric forms, that are considered sculptural elements in the building façades.

 Residential Use

 Residential condominiums start on Level 3 and continue through Level 12.  Level 2 is an exterior common use terrace and commercial space. In the best scenario, the envisioned use is an outdoor sculpture garden and accessible from the commercial space below, which, ideally, is an art gallery.  Level 2 is also dedicated open space for the building occupants.  The roof terrace is designed to be used by the condo owners and is the roof of the commercial space on Level 1. It steps back 43’-0” from the street to allow light to filter into the commercial space as well as the condominium entry. There is a large, open air, vertical separation, 20’-7” between level 2 and 3 and this architectural relief ostensibly allows greater natural light to the terrace area.

 The leasable condominium floor areas range in size from 2,121 square feet to 3,202 square feet net usable area.  Given the rather intimate average dwelling floor area size, there is only area for one residential condominium per floor. The largest residential floor plate has a floor area of 3,202 square feet, located on level 10.

 The building core uses a scissor exit stair that has been commonly used for a century in New York City high rise buildings. However, in today’s building code, a standard riser height of 7” and a tread length of 11” render the older scissor stairs obsolete. The proposed scissor stair moves the landings from the end of the stairs to the middle of the stairs at every third level and requires a floor-to-floor height of 12’-10”. This allows for minimum head clearance between the stairs while an internal stairway chase is added between the stair runs. This chase is intended for mechanical-plumbing lines that run vertically through the building core. The elevators are located to the south of the stairs, and both the stairs and elevators are pulled away from the east exterior wall to allow a landing at every third level. By placing the service core 8’-6” away from the east wall, space for circulation, kitchen functions, and trash chutes are provided.

 Level 12 is laid out in a more rectangular form in relation to the service core location.  The northern boundary of this rectangle is eleven feet off Leroy Street, its east and west boundaries are at the property lines, and south boundary is positioned at the 20’-0” setback. The building’s rotation, surprisingly, starts with Level 12, at the top of the building and works itself down through the subsequent floors. Level 12 floor plate is copied to the next lower level and rotated two - and one-half degrees from a common pivot point, located at the intersection of the eastern property line and the southern light well line. This rotation happens in succession through level 3.  To enclose the wall space between the rotated floor edges, metal studs are placed at the edge of each slab.  Since the edge of the slab below is shifted inward, steel framing is placed from the lower slab to the upper slab. When a surface material is applied over the framing, a smooth and subtlety curving skin is created, expressing the building’s angling wall surfaces, and creating a notable parabolic skin. While the outer walls twist and change slope simultaneously, the interior walls are held plumb, which creates variations in the wall thickness. Window openings expose these playful variations in the parabolic wall thickness.

 Summary

 What does this building design bring to New York? Maybe first, one should ask what it doesn’t bring to a city known for its progressive architecture? Following the strict as-by-right requirements would result in a typical rectangular shaped building and have seven floors of storage space without windows. The adjacent Federal Express building and the next block to the east are good examples of what was built as by right and would be thusly continued without variation on the subject site. Even if an increase to the FAR is granted and the sky plane is eliminated, the floor plates would likely all be identical and the resulting building form is like its neighbors, except for 160 Leroy.

 Allowing construction for this proposed architectural landmark, on a subject site saddled with severe restrictions, creates a unique building form that continues the rich contextual fabric, commonly found at street level, and its juxtaposing modern, sculptural residential tower above. The proposed design, in concert with 160 Leroy, will likely continue to attract neighborhood notoriety given their diverse and progressive architectural styles. It should be noted here, and stressed with special emphasis, that the proposed design successfully overcomes the financial limitations of an as-by-right building design and contributes the developing character of the neighborhood.

 In conclusion, the proposed building design aspires to join a long architectural tradition found within Manhattan. This tradition recognizes contributions to the built environment that transcend purely functional forms of expression, with those buildings that aspire to become a living testament to progressive ideas, techniques, and materials of its time. These architectural contributions make compelling, memorable places and buildings for generations of New Yorkers. The proposed design, after all, aspires to become not just another building, but a landmark building.

Borrowing, Part 2

Borrowing, Part 2

“I started out trying to create buildings that would sparkle like isolated jewels. Now I want to connect, to form a new kind of landscape, to flow together with contemporary cities and the lives of their people.”

Zaha Hadid

As mentioned in part one of this series, to borrow means to take and use something that belongs to someone else for a period of time and then return it. It is in the returning, especially when it involves long-term real estate deals, is where this quid quo pro becomes more difficult, especially for the entity doing the borrowing. This is especially the case when considering the use of real property and the entanglements of ownership and liability, only to name a few. The reality of sharing amenities with interests that lay outside the sphere of the project, are to be assess on a case-by-case basis. It is not, after all, a purloined acquisition, but borrowed.

When sharing public amenities, such as park space, roads, data and utility systems, the concept of borrowing is more understandable and plausible to entertain then considering borrowing within the private investment sphere. Nonetheless, opportunities within both private and public development abound.

In the case of Springer Sky Link, a new pedestrian bridge linking a city owned parking garage to a new urban plaza, developer and architect Richard Yates, AIA, lays bare the concept of borrowing to great aplomb. In this unique use of the borrowing concept, he adroitly leverages city infrastructure (an existing parking garage) with a new pedestrian bridge spanning an active rail way (the rail road tracks divide the city of Albuquerque), while revitalizing a neighborhood awash with surface parking lots with a new plaza, which was once a parking lot. The plaza is also a planned nodal connection with, what promises to be a city wide Rail Trail, serving multi-modal transportation and linking the city’s famous rail yards with its neighborhoods.

It is no coincidence, this project’s intention and the city’s found purpose to develop networks of multi-modal trails, see the value of borrowed uses and dependencies, as both stakeholders find value in each other’s purpose. And although each has its own program for use and material specifications and physical requirements, borrowing in this example, presents a confluence of purpose and proves issues of ownership and use can, and must be overcome, for the greater good of the public realm.

Borrowing, Part 1

Borrow means to take and use something that belongs to someone else for a period of time and then return it”

Observing the built environment in both large and small American cities, including rural places, the idea of ownership seems to evade the concept of sharing space, a likely result of monetary and privacy concerns. Public or common space tends to remain in the public trust, and rarely do the two co-exist, except at the street to development. The streetscape is currently where form-based zoning is focused, but misses sharing spaces and amenities within development programs since they are self-administered.  Hence, the very idea of borrowing land, space, and amenities, is a unique idea within an American development zeitgeist. Why build an amenity when a neighbor can provide the same amenity?

The concept of borrowing can be evidenced through various adjacencies and project types, uncovering new spatial relationships that suggest how property lines, ownership, and development is organized. The organization of space within the pressing demands of de-carbonation, reduction of waste, access to green space, and walkability, align with borrowing namely due to the fluid transfer of spatial ideas and adjacencies that add- and subtract- from existing relationships to create a dynamic development environment of opportunities. Thusly, borrowing on small or large scales can be an effective means to address current issues within development - at any scale.

Recently, I had an opportunity to conceptualize a condominium tower in New York City. The site, a postage-sized lot in lower Manhattan, was an opportunity to borrow amenities from the neighborhood, in lieu of providing the same amenities in a limited building footprint. The lot is bound on its three sides by large scale industrial and residential uses. But the residential development to the west has at its center, an expansive green space. Said green space was leveraged to be a garden space for the new condominium. The lower floors are design to leverage this adjacent amenity specifically, while the upper floors take advantage of the New York Skyline views.

In lieu of including building amenities such as parking and a gym, research of the surrounding neighborhood amenities located multiple gym and coffee houses, all with parking nearby. These amenities could then be removed from the building program, which aimed to increase the number of units and maximize square footage. Because of NYC zoning allowances, the cellar space is not included in the building’s Floor Area Ratio (FAR), which was initially envisioned as dry retail space. Upon touring NYC, the pocket parks that include a water fountain and public seating, were viewed as a more life affirming amenity. The water fountain was placed at the back of the site at the adjacent building’s imposing brick wall. With the combination of water, landscaping, and natural light, the cellar and lower levels of this project begin to rival that of the upper floors, with protected interior views and privacy.

In this development project, the simple notion of borrowing from the existing amenities, determined a basis-for-design that increases the value of the project, while avoiding the redundant approach of self-contained building amenities. The reliance of any development’s self-containment, denies the potency of the location’s full potential , its access to transportation, vibrant shopping, and people watching, which in turn, isolates the end-users into static relationships with the surrounding neighborhood.

 Because something is borrowed, it never really belongs to the person or entity doing the borrowing. This simple proposition results in instability, which is more dynamic in nature, since the desired environment of the borrower may change over time.

Rail Park and Site Santa Fe

The not-so-recent architectural addition to the City Different, the Railyard Park and the Site Santa Fe building, works by Allied Architecture and Shop architects, respectively, are located on the southern boundary of the the Rail Road District. The park and Site Santa Fe are quite an inversion of space and form from the the City’s other, well known Architecture, popularized by Sharon Woods in her classic “Santa Fe Style”. The park and Site Santa Fe’s modernity supports the railyard development not as representation of the past, but by imaging the future with a new spatial experience for the denizens of this historic and so lovely of a city.

Indeed, the vision behind the railyard district involved many user groups that resulted pedestrian connectivity, shared community space, and a collective sense of history, replete with references to the the once important railroad. For it was the railroad that brought more a fashionable architectural style, the Territorial Style, with its classical references of pediments and brick coping, along with eastern goods and building materials to this Spanish enclave.

Why I am fascinated with the rail park is its use of geometry, a linear park that continues the rail track theme from the districts' northern half, which by the way, is a lovely public space with a collection of shops, a farmers market, plaza space and even an end-of-the-line rail station. The Rail Park isn’t’ planned as part of the street grid; when viewed from an automobile, the rail park angles away from the road and ignores the busy intersection of Cerrillos Road and Guadalupe Street. Because the park angles away from the street grid to maintain its alliance with the rail road, it feels unrelated to car while driving. But when walking, biking or running, its linear planning makes perfect sense and has many nodal pockets of activities for locals and tourists alike. The success of this development is in the strength of its commitment to people and sense of place.

It’s the park and Site Santa Fe that has attracted my attention, namely because of their novel use of space, as both the rail park and Site Santa Fe work together, in harmony so to speak. Site Santa Fe is simple in adornment and geometry, except its rather daring entry yard wall, that, unlike the traditional Santa Fe Style courtyard wall, is a diaphanous metal lattice that pulls up at its acutely angled corner, revealing its glassy curtain wall of the museum entry beyond. This one architectural element, the corner entry, has intrigued me for many years until its raison d’etre become clearer in my imagination: The Great Utopian Constructivist work of Vladimir Tatlin. His work, Corner Relief, 1915, is a revolutionary sculpture because it leveraged a room corner to “re-contextualize” the viewer’s experience. The Site Santa Fe entry, instead of being seen frontally, suggests the viewer concentrate on the corner of the building where it becomes part of the sculpture (wall) itself, and an indexical sign of the institution. In the case of Site Santa Fe, a contemporary art museum, the building corner rises to represent an architectural Avant Garde, like the art work within the building. Site Santa Fe sits at the corner of a well trafficked intersection and shoulders the rail park to its east, making the pedestrian welcome while walking along the park and its dramatic corner opens to the farmers market to the north. By leveraging the corner, the building makes two presentations of itself at the same time, much like Tatlin’s Corner Relief.

For this admirer of architectural and urban design, this museum and the rail park prove that architecture functions best with supporting contextual development. When architecture, as building, works with the architecture of park (context), the richness of both is elevated to a palpable perceptive statement for a human being to experience. Architecture and place in this context, is something to see, something to behold, something to experience.