fabrics
University o f A r k a n s a s COMMUNITY D E S I G N C E N T E R Spring 2008 Stephen Luoni Aaron Gabriel
fabrics S t u d e n t s Cory Amos Joshua Clemence Jimmy Coldiron Benjamin Curtin Andy Darling Elisa Pandozi Brian Poepsel Michela Sgalambro Lauren Vogl
This study is a rediscovery of place-making fabrics throughout our state enjoyed intuitively by most people rather than interpreted syntactically. The fabrics selected establish coherence at the scale of a one-half mile pedestrian shed; the measure within which people choose walking over driving on condition that a well-designed environment rewards it. Yet, no healthy fabric functions in isolation. Embedded in structures best described as networks, fabrics are supported by larger orders of town and region-making, and in turn, themselves support embedded place-making subsets. Nonetheless, fabrics at this particular scale remind us that pedestrians are the measure of a community and a fundamental gauge of livability. Patterns convey culture. With exception of the automobile-only fabrics, the illustrated fabrics adhere to customary patterns of land development transmitted by a marketplace of builders, residents, and others mostly outside of professional design culture. Their intrinsic intelligence about density, grain, scale, use, and space was developed incrementally and eventually institutionalized as archetypes open to infinite variation. Regardless of varying geographic features or other niche characteristics of context, fabrics of the same genus (e.g. squares, parks, edges, or campuses) clearly demonstrate shared principles of place-making. Their principles are rooted in humanistic measures versus the abstract regulations of land-use zoning, which structure our contemporary environments.
Almost all of these fabrics arose before the establishment of land-use zoning and traffic engineering in the 1920s, products of a professionalized planning culture. In their historical development, these fabrics demonstrate the accumulated wisdom of the crowd over that of expert culture. UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Anchoring and passage define the poetic work of fabrics. What distinguishes pedestrian-oriented from automobile-only fabrics, however, are their spatial organizations. While pedestrian-oriented fabrics do not exclude the automobile, their compression of other patterns into a single place creates vitality in use and experience―a rewarding structure for everyday life. Planned by experts, automobile-only fabrics are devoted to the singular mission of optimizing traffic flow. Their monocultures result in a diffused spatial organization, due less to their low densities or large building scales than to their devotion to one pattern―mobility. Spatial organization in pedestrian-oriented fabrics is characterized by condensation or mix of patterns. Such density in order prizes access over mobility: the convenience in reaching most necessary services by foot or public transit.
Square
Town Square - Fayetteville, AR 1“ = 400’
UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Main Street Huntsville
Square UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Main Street Mountain Home
Square UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Highway 21 Kingston
Square 11 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
West Main Street El Dorado
Square 13 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Mountain Street Fayetteville
Square 15 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Central Avenue Bentonville
Square 17 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Main Street Harrison
Square 19 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Main Street Wilson
Square 21 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Highway 62 Yellville
Square 23 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Campus - Hendrix College - Conway, AR 1“ = 400’
Campus
UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Hendrix College Conway
Campus 27 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
John Brown University Siloam Springs
Campus 29 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Lyons College Batesville
Campus 31 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
The University of Arkansas Monticello
Campus 33 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Ouachita Baptist University Arkadelphia
Campus 35 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Subiaco Abbey and Academy Subiaco
Campus 37 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
University of Arkansas Fayetteville
Campus 39 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Veterans Administration Medical Center Fayetteville
Campus 41 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Arkansas Tech Univeristy Russellville
Campus 43 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Parks
UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Capitol Park Little Rock
Parks 47 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Wilson Park Fayetteville
Parks 49 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Gulley Park Fayetteville
Parks 51 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
West Olrich Street Rogers
Parks 53 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Walker Park Fayetteville
Parks 55 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Allsopp Park Little Rock
Parks 57 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Family Park Hot Springs
Parks 59 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
MacArthur Park Little Rock
Parks 61 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Creekmore Oak Cemetary Fort Smith
Parks 63 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Corridor
UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Main Street Blytheville
Corridor 67 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Dickson Street Fayetteville
Corridor 69 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Har-Ber Meadows Springdale
Corridor 71 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Highway 63 Main Street Hardy
Corridor 73 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Railroad Boulevard Morrilton
Corridor 75 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
South Main Street Pine Bluff
Corridor 77 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Pinnacle Promenade Rogers
Corridor 79 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Central Avenue Hot Springs
Corridor 81 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Highway 23 Eureka Springs
Corridor 83 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Grid
UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Highway 64 West & Parkway Ave Conway
Grid 87 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Highway 102 and Main Street Centerton
Grid 89 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Downtown Helena
Grid 91 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Galloway Circle Jacksonville
Grid 93 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Downtown Little Rock
Grid 95 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Downtown Mountain Home
Grid 97 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Downtown Rogers
Grid 99 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Downtown West Memphis
Grid 101 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Downtown Batesville
Grid 103 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Hillside
HILLSIDE - BELLA VISTA , AR 1” = 400’
UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Highway 7 Jasper
Hillside 107 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Mount Sequoyah Fayetteville
Hillside 109 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
The Heights Little Rock
Hillside 111 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Markham Street Little Rock
Hillside 113 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Table Rock Lake Holiday Island
Hillside 115 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Spring Street Eureka Springs
Hillside 117 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Main Street Heber Springs
Hillside 119 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Forest Hills Boulevard Bella Vista
Hillside 121 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Dave Creek Parkway Fairfield Bay
Hillside 123 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Edge
UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Seger Creek Siloam Springs
Edge 127 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Spring River Hardy
Edge 129 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
River Market Little Rock
Edge 131 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Frisco Street Marked Tree
Edge 133 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Lake Chicot Lake Village
Edge 135 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
White River Des Arc
Edge 137 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Lake Harrison Crooked Creek
Edge 139 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
White River Cotter
Edge 141 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Polk Bayou Batesville
Edge 143 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Auto-Oriented
UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport Highfill
Auto-Oriented 147 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Pinnacle Promenade Rogers
Auto-Oriented 149 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
I-30 and Markham Little Rock
Auto-Oriented 151 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
I-30, I-530, I-440 Little Rock
Auto-Oriented 153 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
University of Arkansas Athletic Valley Fayetteville
Auto-Oriented 155 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Fulbright Expressway Fayetteville
Auto-Oriented 157 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Little Rock Airport Little Rock
Auto-Oriented 159 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Northwest Arkansas Mall Fayetteville
Auto-Oriented 161 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
War Memorial Stadium Little Rock
Auto-Oriented 163 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Town Square - Fayetteville, AR 1“ = 400’
Campus - Hendrix College - Conway, AR 1“ = 400’
HILLSIDE - BELLA VISTA , AR 1” = 400’
fabrics S t u d e n t s Cory Amos Joshua Clemence Jimmy Coldiron Benjamin Curtin Andy Darling Elisa Pandozi Brian Poepsel Michela Sgalambro Lauren Vogl
This study is a rediscovery of place-making fabrics throughout our state enjoyed intuitively by most people rather than interpreted syntactically. The fabrics selected establish coherence at the scale of a one-half mile pedestrian shed; the measure within which people choose walking over driving on condition that a well-designed environment rewards it. Yet, no healthy fabric functions in isolation. Embedded in structures best described as networks, fabrics are supported by larger orders of town and region-making, and in turn, themselves support embedded place-making subsets. Nonetheless, fabrics at this particular scale remind us that pedestrians are the measure of a community and a fundamental gauge of livability. Patterns convey culture. With exception of the automobile-only fabrics, the illustrated fabrics adhere to customary patterns of land development transmitted by a marketplace of builders, residents, and others mostly outside of professional design culture. Their intrinsic intelligence about density, grain, scale, use, and space was developed incrementally and eventually institutionalized as archetypes open to infinite variation. Regardless of varying geographic features or other niche characteristics of context, fabrics of the same genus (e.g. squares, parks, edges, or campuses) clearly demonstrate shared principles of place-making. Their principles are rooted in humanistic measures versus the abstract regulations of land-use zoning, which structure our contemporary environments.
Almost all of these fabrics arose before the establishment of land-use zoning and traffic engineering in the 1920s, products of a professionalized planning culture. In their historical development, these fabrics demonstrate the accumulated wisdom of the crowd over that of expert culture. UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Anchoring and passage define the poetic work of fabrics. What distinguishes pedestrian-oriented from automobile-only fabrics, however, are their spatial organizations. While pedestrian-oriented fabrics do not exclude the automobile, their compression of other patterns into a single place creates vitality in use and experience―a rewarding structure for everyday life. Planned by experts, automobile-only fabrics are devoted to the singular mission of optimizing traffic flow. Their monocultures result in a diffused spatial organization, due less to their low densities or large building scales than to their devotion to one pattern―mobility. Spatial organization in pedestrian-oriented fabrics is characterized by condensation or mix of patterns. Such density in order prizes access over mobility: the convenience in reaching most necessary services by foot or public transit.
Square
Town Square - Fayetteville, AR 1“ = 400’
UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Main Street Huntsville
Square UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Main Street Mountain Home
Square UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Highway 21 Kingston
Square 11 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
West Main Street El Dorado
Square 13 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Mountain Street Fayetteville
Square 15 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Central Avenue Bentonville
Square 17 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Main Street Harrison
Square 19 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Main Street Wilson
Square 21 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Highway 62 Yellville
Square 23 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Campus - Hendrix College - Conway, AR 1“ = 400’
Campus
UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Hendrix College Conway
Campus 27 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
John Brown University Siloam Springs
Campus 29 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Lyons College Batesville
Campus 31 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
The University of Arkansas Monticello
Campus 33 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Ouachita Baptist University Arkadelphia
Campus 35 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Subiaco Abbey and Academy Subiaco
Campus 37 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
University of Arkansas Fayetteville
Campus 39 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Veterans Administration Medical Center Fayetteville
Campus 41 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Arkansas Tech Univeristy Russellville
Campus 43 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Parks
UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Capitol Park Little Rock
Parks 47 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Wilson Park Fayetteville
Parks 49 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Gulley Park Fayetteville
Parks 51 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
West Olrich Street Rogers
Parks 53 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Walker Park Fayetteville
Parks 55 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Allsopp Park Little Rock
Parks 57 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Family Park Hot Springs
Parks 59 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
MacArthur Park Little Rock
Parks 61 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Creekmore Oak Cemetary Fort Smith
Parks 63 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Corridor
UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Main Street Blytheville
Corridor 67 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Dickson Street Fayetteville
Corridor 69 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Har-Ber Meadows Springdale
Corridor 71 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Highway 63 Main Street Hardy
Corridor 73 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Railroad Boulevard Morrilton
Corridor 75 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
South Main Street Pine Bluff
Corridor 77 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Pinnacle Promenade Rogers
Corridor 79 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Central Avenue Hot Springs
Corridor 81 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Highway 23 Eureka Springs
Corridor 83 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Grid
UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Highway 64 West & Parkway Ave Conway
Grid 87 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Highway 102 and Main Street Centerton
Grid 89 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Downtown Helena
Grid 91 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Galloway Circle Jacksonville
Grid 93 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Downtown Little Rock
Grid 95 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Downtown Mountain Home
Grid 97 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Downtown Rogers
Grid 99 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Downtown West Memphis
Grid 101 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Downtown Batesville
Grid 103 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Hillside
HILLSIDE - BELLA VISTA , AR 1” = 400’
UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Highway 7 Jasper
Hillside 107 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Mount Sequoyah Fayetteville
Hillside 109 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
The Heights Little Rock
Hillside 111 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Markham Street Little Rock
Hillside 113 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Table Rock Lake Holiday Island
Hillside 115 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Spring Street Eureka Springs
Hillside 117 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Main Street Heber Springs
Hillside 119 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Forest Hills Boulevard Bella Vista
Hillside 121 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Dave Creek Parkway Fairfield Bay
Hillside 123 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Edge
UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Seger Creek Siloam Springs
Edge 127 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Spring River Hardy
Edge 129 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
River Market Little Rock
Edge 131 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Frisco Street Marked Tree
Edge 133 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Lake Chicot Lake Village
Edge 135 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
White River Des Arc
Edge 137 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Lake Harrison Crooked Creek
Edge 139 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
White River Cotter
Edge 141 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Polk Bayou Batesville
Edge 143 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Auto-Oriented
UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport Highfill
Auto-Oriented 147 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Pinnacle Promenade Rogers
Auto-Oriented 149 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
I-30 and Markham Little Rock
Auto-Oriented 151 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
I-30, I-530, I-440 Little Rock
Auto-Oriented 153 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
University of Arkansas Athletic Valley Fayetteville
Auto-Oriented 155 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Fulbright Expressway Fayetteville
Auto-Oriented 157 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Little Rock Airport Little Rock
Auto-Oriented 159 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Northwest Arkansas Mall Fayetteville
Auto-Oriented 161 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
War Memorial Stadium Little Rock
Auto-Oriented 163 UNIVERSITY
OF
ARKANSAS
UACDC
community design center
Town Square - Fayetteville, AR 1“ = 400’
Campus - Hendrix College - Conway, AR 1“ = 400’
HILLSIDE - BELLA VISTA , AR 1” = 400’
