Peter Olive – Urban Development and Design

 

Table of Contents

 

1. Spatial Flow in the Global Mega-cities and the Rush to Urbanisation. What Happens in the Vast Vacuum?
2. Alternative Models to Growth: Moving to Bhutan
3. Sustainability and the Compact City: Putting the Cap in Capacity
4. Sin City: The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothes
5. Model Perimeter Block v Fine-Grained Terrace Housing
6. Compact City: Perimeter Block Housing
7. Big City to International City to Global City
8. Beaconsfield: Road Widening and Changing Land Uses
9. Light Rail: Back to the Future
10. Mascot Station. Common Sense Prevails, Finally! Partially!
11. On Your Bike: a Return to Two Wheels
12. Cargo from Chicago. Containerisation
13. Taming the Car
14. Aesthetics Versus Planning in Enmore
15. West Village Housing, Manhattan

 

 

 

 

Spatial flow in the Global Mega-cities and the Rush to Urbanisation. What Happens in the Vast Vacuum?

In the previous post the Studies in Happiness, Economy and Sustainability (ISHES) asked the question “Can humanity as a whole be happy and satisfied without destroying the natural systems on which we depend?” It is in light of  the second part of this question, “without destroying the natural systems” that I want to consider the writing of Manuel Castells, particularly regarding an issue not directly discussed by Castells: rural depopulation.

Manuel Castells explores the  global network and its need for a location. The global network is functioning in two  distinct and opposite ways. As a means of implementing  “decisions” it operates globally. However, the space in which those decisions are made is local: “face to face.” It is this necessity for face to face interaction required by the “advanced services” that make them the “dynamo of urban growth”. “Knowledge sites and communication networks are the spatial attractors for the information economy” just as access to natural resources and power distribution had been  the spatial attractors in the industrial era. While he acknowledges that previously established cities like London, New York and Tokyo are significant nodes in the global network he claims they did not create the network but instead have be co-opted and strengthened by it: they have been recreated by it.

The shift to a globalised world has had a number of dramatic effects. Firstly, it has created the mega-city regions that encompass large numbers of people over a large area, where 2,3 or 4 mega cities connect as nodes in a regional adjunct of the global network. He describes the “Southland”:the name given to the region that includes Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego and Tijuana and extends inland for about 100 miles (fig.1).

fig.1 Southland.

Secondly, Castells enumerates the flow of human population in response to the globalised world: the world is rushing  toward the largest wave of urbanisation in human history. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) by 2030 over 5 billion people will live in urban environments while South America is already at 80% urban population, with Europe and North America not far behind.

A third effect, not discussed by Castells, is the depopulation of the countryside that corresponds with urbanisation.  What should our response be to it? And if there are potential environmentally positive outcomes to be had there how do we achieve them now or in the medium and long term?

Rural depopulation should present an opportunity for the environment to regain some of the losses it has sustained since the Industrial Revolution. As people are lured by the “spatial attractors for the information economy” the land formerly used in agrarian economies, both peasant based or industrial farming, becomes free for other uses. The opportunity arises for the boundary between the economy and nature to be redrawn. However there is no reason to assume that this will happen in an orderly or timely manner.

Despite being part of a mega-city region the town of Temecula exhibits none of the dense urban fabric one might expect of  a Global node (fig.2). Instead urban sprawl rolls out across the land as people aspire to a life in atomised, car dependent  “MacMansions” (fig.3).  Clearly, there is a market for housing that has no ambition to sustainability. Equally clear is that planning authorities and rural land owners on the urban fringe are able to subdivide and market this land long after this model of human habitation has been condemned by environmentally aware urban planners.

fig.2 Suburban Sprawl in Temecula,  Southland.

fig.3 Close up of Suburban Sprawl, Temecula, Southland.

Of course, in other Global cities the model of the Ville Contemporaine is still being pursued (fig.4).  Across China, as urbanisation continues apace, the ancient, dense hutong are bulldozed and replaced with high rise towers. This model is also used in new urban areas (fig.5).

fig.4 Le Corbusier’s Voisin Pan

fig 5. Contemporary Buildings in Beijing are remarkably similar to those  recommended by Le Corbusier.

The implications presented by these 20th century housing models for redrawing the boundaries between nature and the economy are poor. One consumes land and maximises transport energy resource consumption and the other fails to deliver sufficient density while failing to meet criteria for quality urban living, mainly multiplicity of uses and a deactivated street front. From the point of view of redrawing the boundary between nature and the economy high rise is preferable. But it is not optimal.

It is the 19th Century example of cities like Barcelona and Paris with their 5 and 6 storey perimeter block developments that are able to contain the most number of people and do so in a way that provides good quality of life. The capacity of these cities to house their populations makes them the appropriate model for urban planners and policy makers when providing housing in and about the nodes of the Global City. Of course there are caveats to this kind of assertion , not least of which is that no form of housing will prevent the economy consuming the environment if a non-growth economic model does not prevail. But the Compact City Model (of which old Paris and Barcelona are representatives) may help us in the interim to contract our footprint until such a time as a sustainable economic model can be found.

References:

Manuel Castells, Globalisation Networking, Urbanisation: Reflections on the Spatial Dynamics of the Information Age: Texas, Urban Studies, A&M University, 2010

figs 1,2,3 & 5. Google Earth

figs 4. http://www.postalesinventadas.com/2011/03/la-cite-daffaires-de-paris-plan-voisin.html

 

 

Alternative Models to Growth: Moving to Bhutan

The Compact City Fallacy recognises that urban design solutions are not, in and of themselves, able to deliver genuinely sustainable economies. It argues for a broader cultural change where consumption and material wealth are not so central to the economy and culture.

In Life Beyond Growth , a report from the Institute for Studies in Happiness, Economy and Sustainability (ISHES),  a number of alternative economic models, purporting to have sustainable credentials, are explained. The report’s introduction posits a simple question, “Can humanity as a whole be happy and satisfied without destroying the natural systems on which we depend?”: a question  similar to that concluding the previous post.

Green Growth.

Green Growth attempts to “stimulate traditional growth in a ‘greener’ (principally defined as ‘low-carbon’) way.” Its proponents hope that it will “leapfrog” the usual “growing first, cleaning up later”  pattern of industrialisation. Green Growth is a top down model and  it attempts to address issues faced by the poor by including them in “policy planning and Implementation cycle.” However, while Green Growth’s ambition of moderating the damage caused by the pathway to growth it nonetheless has growth as its  object.

Green Economy

According to the Life Beyond Growth Report the idea of Green Economy is aimed at “neutralising the argument that sustainability can only be achieved at the cost of economic development.” The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) pushed the idea in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis calling for the redirection of $1.3 trillion away from resource intensive industries and to “greener areas” such as sustainable forestry. While not explicitly calling for growth Green Economy is difficult in practice to differentiate from Green Growth.

Sustainable Development

Sustainable Development “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” It can be attached to a broad range of activities and its critics point out it has no clear philosophy or strategy. Sustainable Development is an umbrella under which those seeking to critique “Growth as usual” can congregate. It is an important departure from Green Growth and Green Economy in that it recognises some need for restriction on growth though without placing specific limits or boundaries (caps) on it.

Re-framing Growth

Since the 1990’s there have been a number of attempts to re-frame growth. Concern regarding the efficacy of using  Gross Domestic Product GDP) as the main index of societal and environmental well being has brought about a number of attempts to recalibrate how the economy is measured. This recalibration includes the inclusion of externalities like social and environmental costs and adding in non- monetised activities. Other indices like the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) have  sought to include “income gaps between rich and poor, waste per unit of GDP, quality of life (life expectancy and other human development indicators), ” and the non- use of “natural and human capital” into their calculations. However, these indices have only been able to question the GDP’s authority not replace it. On the one hand a key issue preventing change is the difficulty in monetising or quantifying  qualitative material. On the other their is little motivation for commercial interests to change from the GDP.

Other indices such as Gross National Happiness (GNH) rely very little on economic inputs to calculate the success or otherwise of the economy. Tradition, psychology, health, ecological concerns,
essential relationships, and modern technology all have a place in GNH. The only country to widely use GNH is Bhutan. As it is a Buddhist Kingdom of less than a million people the applicability  of its lessons to other larger economies where meritocratic and democratic values prevail is questionable.

A radical departure from all of the above is “De- growth”, which is the intentional retraction of the economy to relieve pressure on the environment.

Fig. 1 The spectrum of alternative economic frameworks

For all the variety the Life Beyond Growth report concludes that there is a convergence on four main points:

1. “Growth as Usual” is impossible in the long term.
2. The GDP is an inadequate or even misleading indicator of progress.
3. Alternatives are both necessary and possible.                                                   4. Happiness and human well-being are the essential goals of any economic framework.

Conclusion

While from an environmental perspective De-growth would be the best solution, from the perspective of those living through the  de-growth it would be problematic.  A rapid implementation of de-growth would lead to an equally rapid political push to stop its implementation.

All the slow growth formulas are an improvement on “Business as Usual” but are ultimately expansionist and if left unchecked would lead to the environmental destruction they seek to avert, only at a slower rate.

Environmental Sustainability seems to give the clearest indication of what is required and what may be possible despite the struggle for a clear definition: A “no-growth economy”  seems appropriate. Environmental Sustainability still posits humans at its stated centre (albeit people of the future) though its intention is to clearly demarcate between economy and ecology with the aim of protecting  the latter without destroying the former. Given the political unrest likely as a result of an induced recession makes even this model difficult to implement. If change is to occur human expectations have to occur. What form these should or can take is beyond the scope of is post but  there will be resistance to the idea of moving to Bhutan.

References: 

Life Beyond Growth: Alternatives and Complements to
GDP-Measured Growth — ISHES (Tokyo, Japan) 2012

 

 

Sustainability and the Compact City: putting the cap in capacity

This post discusses issues around the article ‘Fallacy of the Compact City’ and ‘Dwelling in the Metropolis’.

In Fallacy of the Compact City five traditions are given as contributors to our contemporary idea of sustainability: Capacity, Fitness, Resilience, Diversity and Balance. An omission from this list seems to be ‘cap’ or ‘limitation’. This post will only talk about Balance as it comes closest to the idea of a cap.

The idea of sustainability comes from an environmental concern that human populations will continue to expand and that without any limitation will eventually consume most, if not all, of the natural world. This concern finds its clearest expression within the tradition of Balance. Here the clash between economy and ecology is exposed. The modern global city is a global growth machine where natural resources are reduced to mere inputs in the economic process. These inputs are consumed in greater quantities by a constantly flowing and changing urban economy. However, the equilibrium required in the Balance tradition is not possible unless some limitation is placed on the urban economy’s capacity to grow.

Recently there have been  attempts to limit growth.  CO2 Cap and Trade schemes are a case in point. Although ‘trade’ was important to neo-classical economists because they prefer market solutions to perceived problems, it is the application of a ‘cap’ that has the ability to put a lid on growth: to define the boundary between the economy and nature and adhere to it.  This takes sustainability out of the economy and into politics.

The boundary between the economy and nature is essential in understanding the modern environmentally driven idea of sustainability. Many measures can be taken that consume less or slow the growth rate  but without a limit within which a sustainable economy can sustain itself, it will eventually go beyond its current reach. Eventually all of nature will be consumed by an and amalgam of human habitation and agribusiness.

Recent statements by Prime Minister Abbott that “there is too much land locked up in National Parks,” is simultaneously worrying, illustrative and goes to the heart of the matter. His clear position is that the boundary between the economy and the environment is too constricted and that existing protection for the latter needs to be reduced. His approach echoes those of some of his state Liberal Premier colleagues who have opened National Parks to cattle grazing.

Equally illustrative regarding economy  over ecology are statements from the current Prime Minister and his two predecessors, Rudd and Gillard, that they support a “Big Australia”.  The Big Australia vision aims for a population of 50 million by 2100.  Policies for population growth are standard remedies for achieving  economic growth. However, more people need more land and resourses.

These broader national policy positions align with more geographically local policies.  A case in point is the current bipartisan support for a second Sydney Airport. On the one hand this shows a national policy of expansion and growth. On the other it  indicates Sydney’s elite see this specific national growth as key to their locally predominant position in the network of the global economy. Together they will drive the unbridled support for growth and this will expand the boundaries within which an uncapped “sustainable economy”  can be contained.

Protagonists for the Compact City  see it as a “physical response  to many urban problems such as land consumption in fringe areas, energy and resource waste, air pollution and accessibility.” Many of these problems are caused by the adoption of early 20th solutions to then urban problems, mainly urban pollution, slums and overcrowding.  They expanded the economy at the expense of the environment.   Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City ideas consumed vast tracks of land and Le Corbusier’s Ville Radieuse  championed an atomised version of urban transport: the car. Together they have delivered the archetypal vision of an unsustainable city. And growth continues unabated.

Wolfgang  Sonne has a clear idea of a compact city, or at least of the buildings that should be in it. They should “define public spaces by following street lines, not to destroy them by setting autonomous patterns.” They should “address the public sphere using Urban fabric” and “contribute to the vivid atmosphere of the city by incorporation various uses not to destroy it by functional zoning.” Most importantly he wants to “reform the metropolis not overcome it.” If the city is to expand then Sonne wants this expansion to be a continuation of the old city much in the way Berlarge’s Amsterdam South is a  continuation of old Amsterdam.

In The Compact City Fallacy the central paradox of the compact city is that “for it to be sustainable, functions and populations must be concentrated in high densities. Yet for a city to be livable, functions and populations must be dispersed at lower densities.”  Of course definitions of high and low density might influence this statement. However, it could be argued that cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona and Prague  have good density but are also liveable. In support of The Compact City Fallacy thesis Sydney is quite liveable but it with its suburban sprawl and car dependency it is not sustainable.

There is worth in Sonne’s urban and architectural remedies for sustainability. Similarly the desire to reduce land consumption and air pollution and save  energy and resources is essential to slow down the rate at which the economy asserts itself over the environment. However, a bigger paradox regarding a successful sustainable compact city is that without boundary limitations: a cap on expansion, it will merely slow down the expansion of the area within which environmental degradation occurs.

References:

Michael Neuman, The Compact City Fallacy in, Journal of Planning Education and Research. 22: 2004. 

Elsevier. Wolfgang Sonne, Dwelling in the Metropolis: Reformed Urban Blocks 1890-1940 as a model for sustainable compact city. Elsevier 2009

 

 

Sin City: The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothes

Harvey Molotch’s The City as a Growth Machine presents the urban world as a dystopic plaything of local oligarchs manipulating the local land regulation system by progressing  their own land and business interests and all the while posing as concerned citizens on issues that provide a smoke screen  for their business arrangements. It would sound like the script of a conspiracy theory if we weren’t witnessing the political fallout of the ICAC in NSW.

Be that as it may the  arguments that Molotch puts to debunk the importance of growth and jobs to the working class is not so convincing.

Much has happened since the day’s of Mayor Daly’s Chicago and even though Eddie Obeid could control politics to suit his business interests he has been caught by the ICAC, something that Mayor Daly was not.

From the perspective of Jane Jacob’s, Mayor Daley was the type of politician with the type of policies she was opposed to. The University of Illinois,  says of Chicago and Daley:

“The city was also involved in urban renewal, demolition of declining neighbourhood, and the construction of federally funded public housing projects. Although the project met with neighborhood opposition, Daley was particularly proud of the construction of the University of Illinois Chicago Circle (now University of Illinois at Chicago) campus on the Near West Side of the city (1965). More controversial was the use of federal money to fund construction of massive high rise public housing towers in some of the city’s primarily African American neighbourhoods. The Stateway Gardens (1955), Cabrini-Green Extension (1957, 1962), and the Robert Taylor Homes (1962) were all built on the city’s South and West sides.

To fund building projects, the city pursued state and federal funding and sought to create an environment that encouraged private investment. A Public Building Commission was formed (1956) to centralize planning and help finance public construction through revenue bonds. At the same time, flexible tax policies and zoning appealed to and attracted private business interests. City sales and utility taxes also helped fund municipal projects. Despite a declining tax base as people and businesses moved to the suburbs, the city of Chicago remained solvent and with a high bond rating at a time when other large urban centers were struggling. Building projects brought high-paying union jobs for Chicago workers, and labor leaders were appointed to policy making city boards and committees.

Ticket fixing, bribes, inflated contracts, and other corruption scandals brought investigations and led to prison terms for some public officials, including City Council floor leader Thomas Keane. The 1960 Summerdale Scandal involving a police burglary ring led to the resignation of the Police Commissioner. Daley appointed Orlando O. Wilson, who undertook a series of reforms to professionalize the force. “

References:

Harvey Molotch, The City as a Growth Machine

University of Illonois, Chicago. http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/findingaids/MSRJD_04intro.html

Model Perimeter Block v Fine-Grained Terrace Housing

 

The previous post “Compact City” explores Wolfgang Sonne’s contention that the reformed perimeter block was “written out of history” because it did not conform to either of the predominant models championed by anti-street Modernists: proponents of the Ville Radieuse and the Garden Suburb.

Sonne puts a strong case supporting the superiority of the reformed perimeter block over these other 2 models. Eventually ventures a little into the merits of fine-grained terrace housing. He cites Elizabeth Denby as a critic of suburban development and tenement buildings. She came to advocate traditional terraced housing which she saw as giving greater density than stand alone cottages and “a more homely typology” than tenements. The below examples go some way to proving her point.

Figs 1, 2, 3, & 4  show fine-grain lot sizes on narrow streets, close to amenities. They are by no means extreme examples. This typology could be pushed further by the addition of attic dormer windows, thus creating greater liveable floor area and greater density. The length of the lots could be shortened and still provide ample private open space in the location. However, while such measures would go some way to increasing the residential unit yield of these areas, even when amended they would fall short of the yields from the perimeter housing blocks of Sonne. Be that as it may, this shortfall does not seem to prevent them from providing Newtown with sufficient density to allow it to function as a bustling multi-purpose centre.

  Fig. 1  Terrace Housing Australia Street, Newtown.Fig. 2 Terrace Facades Australia Street Fig.3 Terrace Lots, St. Mary’s Street, NewtownFig. 4 Terrace Facades, St Mary’s Street, Newtown

References

Elsevier. Wolfgang Sonne, Dwelling in the Metropolis: Reformed Urban Blocks 1890-1940 as a model for sustainable compact city. Elsevier 2009

Figs 1,3 Sixmaps

Figs 2,4 Google Earth

 

Compact City: Perimeter Block Housing

Fig 1 is a diagram by Walter Gropius, the influential early 20th Century Architect. The diagram purports to show the transition from from an organic urban block through an intermediary perimeter tenement block and onto  rowed blocks.  According to Wolfgang Sonne,  Gropius’ schema was a myth based more on wish fulfilment that any actual evolution. Sonne lumps Gropius into a group of other theorists whose city models “envisaged the dissolution of urban dwelling typologies which had a direct connection to the street and thus to architecturally defined public spaces.” These included Bruno Taut. Le Corbusier, Ebenizer Howard , Frank Lloyd Wright and Hans Scharoun. It should be clear from these simple typological diagrams that the opportunities afforded residents are quite different. Typology 2: the perimeter block, offers 3 types of space: fully private, fully public and shared private. Typology 3 only offers 2: fully public and fully private. On this simple observation alone the reduced choice of spatial experience should militate against the Modernist  Row Block typology.

Extremes of the Block Row and Garden Suburb are Le Corbusier’s “Voisin Plan” (Fig 2.) for central Paris and the suburban sprawl at the perimeter of our large cities.  In his “Voisin Plan” Le Corbusier proposed the gutting of the historic fabric of Paris and replacing with anti-street towers set in open space.  Thankfully, this criminally insane plan was not proceeded with. However, it became an influential Modernist typology.

Fig.2 Voisin Plan 1925.

 

Urban sprawl  has spread around the perimeters of larger cities.  In Australia it is identified with in the national psyche as the “‘quarter acre blocks “. It is dependent on the private motor vehicle, mall shopping and atomised consumption.

Fig.3 Urban Sprawl, Melbourne

 

Fig. 4, 5 & 6 are examples of various block row houses in Sydney. Here the dissolution of the street has changed the environment in two distinct ways. Firstly, having  removed the architectural function and definition of the street it has removed surveillance from the street. Secondly, the transition from the street to the open public space, having become unbounded, has made unclear where civic responsibility lies.  A reduction in surveillance and a reduction in defined responsibility are unlikely to produce safe zones.

Fig 4. Redfern, Public Housing

 

Fig 5. Namatjirra Flats, Little Bay

 

Fig. 6  Block Rows, East Lakes

 

Figs 7, 8 & 9 are multi-unit dwellings in Sydney. They have a number of attributes that are similar to the perimeter block housing as discussed by Sonne, particularly the internal courtyards.  In this regard they achieve some of the same intention. Of Kay Fisker’s, Hornbaekhaus, Sonne says, “a large green court provides the inhabitants with all the the necessities of a pleasant place to live, namely light, air, silence, trees and meadows, offering a beautiful and safe place for recreation and play, despite being in the city centre.” Variations of these attributes can be seen in the images below. However, these Sydney examples depart from Sonne’s in that they fail to reinforce the the street scape with “an explicitly urban facade.” Rather, it is left to fencing to simultaneously reinforce the street and deliver a the true sense of enclosure in these developments. This is makes them somewhat of a hybrid though, with regard to the important question of safety, surveillance and the provision of three types of space: private, semi private and public, they function closer to the perimeter block that the row block. The short fall of these developments regarding their failure to reinforce the street is hardly surprising given their location amid the free standing houses of the suburbs. Even more so since they are usually infill developments on older industrial land.

Fig. 7 Cecilia Court Marrickville 1990’s

 

Fig. 8 Sydney Park Road, St Peters

 

Fig.9 Williams Parade Dulwich Hill 1990’s

 

References

Elsevier. Wolfgang Sonne, Dwelling in the Metropolis: Reformed Urban Blocks 1890-1940 as a model for sustainable compact city. Elsevier 2009

Fig.2 Voisin Plan,   www.fondationlecorbusier.fr

Fig. 3  Urban Sprawl,  http://theconversation.com/the-grass-isnt-greener-in-the-outer-burbs-12532

Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9 Google Earth

 

Big City to International City to Global City

The images of Sydney in 1943 and again in 2011 show its transition from a big regional city to a Global City.

Fig. 1 Sydney in 1943

In 1943 the shadows of the predominantly 5 and 6 storey, Victorian building stock merely serve to define the streets of Sydney’s business district (fig1). By 2011 the forty storey plus, corporate towers of the CBD obliterate the street pattern (fig.2).

Sydney as a working port has suffered steady decline. In 1943 Darling Harbour and Pyrmont are full of wharves making the City an actual place of goods exchange. In 1943  freight rail lines converge on the Darling Harbour goods yard, beneath Pyrmont Bridge.

By 2011 the wharves have gone or have been converted into luxury apartments or premises for various arts and cultural organisations. The intervening Patrick’s Container Terminal, lays dormant awaiting conversion and absorption into Sydney: the Global City, in the guise of Barangaroo. The former goods yard has long since been decommissioned and now houses bars convention centres and aquaria.

Fig. 2 Sydney 2011

Economically the Sydney of 1943 is more like Chicago of the 19th Century, a hub through which produce from the hinterland is financed and traded. Whereas, the Sydney of 2011 is a product of globalisation. It has taken its place in the network corporate management and the impact on the built environment is evident. To paraphrase Saskia Sassen, the high densities in the business districts of new globalised cities are one spatial expression of the internationalisation and expansion of the financial industry.

 

References

Saskia Sassen, The Global City. New York: Princeton University Press. 1991.

Figs 1&2  Sixmaps

Beaconsfield: Road Widening and Changing Land Uses

Corner of Botany and Epsom Road, Beaconsfield.

The curved facades of the Hotel Rosebery and the shop on the opposite corner are of a similar vintage and appear to have been built to align with the road reservation as shown on Sydney Council’s Map (Fig. 4)

 

Fig 1 Bull-nose corner buildings, Epsom Rd. Beaconsfield.

 

Fig. 2 Corner of Botany and Epsom Road, Beaconsfield in 1943.

Note the Rosebery Hotel, the curved facade building on the opposite corner and the shop building sitting very proud of the latter. Building along Botany Road to the North generally follow an alignment similar to the shop building. To the South buildings have been built closer to the then street alignment, proud of the Hotel.

Corner of Botany and Epsom Road, Beaconsfield in 2011

This current aerial photo shows that while  the 3 corner buildings still have the same alignment there have been significant change to the North and the South. Most immediately to the South a new infill building has a setback along the same alignment as the hotel. Buildings on either side retain their original alignments proud of the hotel. Further South all the redeveloped sites have had their alignments set further back that they were in 1943.

 

Corner of Botany and Epsom Road, Beaconsfield, City of Sydney LEP 2012

This Map is the current City of Sydney Zoning Map. The wide yellow line in the centre of the imageis the road reserve corridor for Botany Road. Close examination reveals that the new setback alignments align with this road reservation. It is reasonable to conclude that the road reservation has been the driving force behind the setbacks. While it is not know when the Road Reservation was gazetted it is not unreasonable to presume that it goes back to before the Hotel was built.

References

Figs 2&3 Sixmaps

Fig 4. City of Sydney LEP Zoning Map

 

 

Light Rail: Back to the Future

 

A Tram pulls into the newly opened light rail stop at Dulwich Hill. This marks another small step in the return of trams to Sydney’s transport system and decline of Sydney as an industrial town. Built on the goods line that runs from Darling Harbour to Dulwich Hill where it meets the Bankstown Line to the West this return to light rail may prove a watershed for sustainable transport.

Remnants of 19th Century and early 20th Century infrastructure still inhabit the rail sidings. The Mungo Scott Flour Mill at Summer Hill is a case in point. It is earmarked for extensive residential redevelopment. This increase in residential density will feed into the viability of the light rail line.

Tunnels from the original goods line provide convenient corridors for contemporary light rail.

Light Rail passengers have an easy commute beyond the reach of Sydney’s streets.

 

Sydney’s Old Tram Network

Of course, light rail (trams) had a long history in Sydney: the second largest network in the world, second only to London. These images below show how effective the trams were at moving people around the city. It also shows how the streets were far more pedestrian friendly. Citizens appear able to safely access the roads. Reliance on trams freed up this space for more than the mono culture of the car.

George Street, Sydney

Railway Square, Sydney. This kind of pedestrian freedom is unimaginable  today due to the restrictions imposed by grinding traffic.

Circular Quay, Sydney

Central Station, Sydney

These two maps show how extensive Sydney’s Tram network was.

Compared to Sydney’s former network  today’s Light Rail is minuscule. However, the most recent extension more than doubles the length of the Central to Lilyfield line. With planning well advanced to build a line from Circular Quay to UNSW Sydney looks to be following other cities around the world as they move back to this 19th Century idea.