Pineapple Planners

Blog Post #3

During the DNA project in the downtown area of Newark, The group was given the opportunity to wander around Newark and collect data on how the are was planned. The group visited several locations such as the the market, jailhouse, park, community garden and several of the buildings in the area. The group found it interesting that Newark maintains an open air market building that is open every Friday with a collection of different merchants and bands giving the area a more old-fashioned, classic feel while right next door, a McDonald’s attempts to masquerade the “old town vibe”. While the group agrees that the McDonald’s being placed where it clearly doesn’t belongs messes with the feel of the downtown area, they also can agree that Newark has done some good things with their downtown as well. One of these “good planning” things was the replacement of all the roads in the main square in order to reduce the crashes that were a result of the confusing layout of the streets. The group also feels as though the green space that is labeled as a park is nice to have, it doesn’t quite serve the originally intended purpose of having a public green space. The group believes that this area could be improved with the addition of the some benches and greenery in order to make it more inviting to the public. With the few exceptions of what is listed above, the group does believe that Newark has an attractive downtown area and that it will likely become even more attractive once those previously mentioned additions are made as well as the completion of the roadways.

Cluster zoning: Alec

Cluster zoning is used by a developer who can use greater flexibility in designing and placing structures, as long as the total density requirement is met. We see this used in the DeSisto development process that is going to be underway soon where they take an abandoned school and turn it into a hotel and residential properties.

Inclusionary zoning: justin Nguyen

Inclusionary zoning is a type of zoning where a city accommodates all economic and social classes of people. Inclusionary zoning divides up the land by including subsidy housing and apartments in proportion to the higher income housing within a city or region. This type of zoning creates a more balanced city and allows for social diversity, which is a main component in creating an accepting community. An example of inclusionary zoning can be found in California. With high volumes of people in California, inclusionary zoning allows for mixed-income people to be able to settle down along with the Californian elite.

Incentive Zoning: Logan Benson

Incentive based zoning is a useful tool for certain governments who know how to use it and can afford it. In Seattle, Washington, a Workforce Housing Incentive Program was issued in order to trade increased zoning height to developers with a certain portion of housing reserved for families falling under the Seattle Median Income. In Middlesex, Virginia, a program was issued to allow rights to high density developments to developers of open spaces and retirement homes. Both of these are good examples of the roper use of incentive based zoning because they have clear and reasonable requirements in exchange for bonuses that developers want, more density means more possible money.

 

Westerville, Ohio is the second largest suburban city around the state capital. The city of Columbus and Westerville have a symbiotic relationship as more people move to Ohio for jobs downtown, they tend to settle down in houses in the surrounding areas such as Westerville. In order to accommodate new people, Westerville also has to expand. Westerville has room to grow, but the problem arises when the natives of Westerville conflict with their different visions of how the city ought to be.

There are many attractions that already exist in Westerville such as its economic base being located so close to Columbus, parks and recreation facilities, and Westerville’s historical context. The people of Westerville had outlined these as their main concerns with what should stay in the community. In order to capitalize on these assets, a vision of the new Westerville will have “a city within a park” feeling. This vision relies on Westerville’s already prominent park and bike path system. With new additions to the parks and recreation area of the community would allow for Westerville to have a unique natural woodland feel that is different from the concrete jungle of downtown. This improvement would allow for people commuting from the city to have a change in scenery instead of always being in the claustrophobic atmosphere of the city.

With all of this expansion happening in Westerville, many people of the existing community are skeptical of the growth and development. Another concern for existing residence is that with the expansion and the thought of seeing strangers everyday would defeat Westerville’s pre-existing sense of community. In order to prevent saturating the community, Westerville plans to build complete and whole neighborhoods. By completing neighborhoods in whole instead or erecting houses spread out throughout the city allows for the new community members to interact with each other, and in turn their neighborhood with the rest of the community. This also will allow for fresh eyes to see and experience the community. This is important because in 20 to 30 years the ones that were living in the once new homes will be seasoned veterans of the community and will be able to give a renewed perspective of what should be done to update Westerville. In another 20 to 30 years, the whole process will start over again. Though residents may come and go, their thoughts of the community are crucial to the longevity of the city.

Blog Post #2

Justin Switzer: Environment

The environment of the area the city is in plays a massive role in not only planning of the city, but in the culture of the city’s residents. The differences in the environment are directly tied to differences from city to city. From buildings being earthquake resistant in parts of California, to homes being raised off the ground in the hurricane-prone regions of the Southeast, the environment ultimately decides how we build a functional city. In today’s era, cities have increased focus on the environment inside of their borders, opting to create many green spaces and parks. Historically and fundamentally, the environment is a very inclusive aspect of city planning worldwide.

Justin Nguyen- design

I believe that design is the most important aspect of creating and renovating a city. Design is such a broad but important element of creating a city, but it applies to every element in planning a city. From the top- down perspective of designing the layout that will incorporate the land. It is crucial to utilize the land that is given to developers and not to waste space. An example of this is that Polaris Fashion Place was able to utilize land that had a sizable hill in the land they had to work with. So they designed the building to have two sections, a top and bottom. The bottom section was built inside the hill instead of wrapping the mall around the hill. With using the hill as a structural support and using the surface area of the hill Polaris mall was able to maximize the area of the mall allowing for more shops to be open.

Logan Benson- Community

I believe that the most important element of an urban space is the community that it creates between its inhabitants. As can be shown by so many examples across the whole world and throughout human history, groups that do not wish to work together and are not made to work together, simply will not work together. A community that has even just one safe place for people to get together and trade ideas, work together, and build bonds has a significant advantage over a society that focuses only on something like the economic advancement of the society. The happier the people are with themselves and each other, the more likely they will be to give back to the society.

Alec Yeager-Design

I believe myself that design is one of the single most important elements because the design of such city is essentially acting as the backbone for that city or community. When a city or community is starting to be built out on paper and through peoples thought process’s the design aspect of such ideas can either make it a fantastic well run city, or it can sink it and make it a very unpleasant place to live and suitable for families and community members. Also when considering the design aspect of such community the framers have to take into consideration that it will only increase in capacity as more and more people flock to this new community, so the designs much think about long term things that may occur further down the road and try and prevent such problems by creating a suitable community that is well ran and maintained from the initial design process.

Because of the internet, culture has changed dramatically from generation to generation.  Because of this, we wanted to create a futuristic and innovative neighborhood is tailored to the kids of today’s generation. Since kids today are now growing up utilizing technology and the internet more in their everyday life, it’s appropriate that they have a community that fits to their unique culture. People today are becoming more accepting, we wanted to make a neighborhood that was designed for the “community” but still incorporated individualistic features.

The Neighborhood that we created was based off of a circular design. We thought that this design was innovative and creative by going a different route than traditional grid-like structure of typical American neighborhoods. With this new design we hope to attract young people that will  enjoy its modern design while creating a modernistic atmosphere. A major component to this design is to create a sense of community by having the shopping center and a main park located in the middle of the neighborhood with housing surrounding it. By doing this, every person regardless of wealth and race would be able to go to the same markets and parks as everyone else, minimizing socioeconomic factors in the community. With this secular design, anyone from any walk of life is represented.  The neighborhood is also linked with bike paths, promoting a healthy alternative to travel and minimizing traffic. Even though the neighborhood is designed to push people to socialize, the houses branch off around the market and park area with a section of trees and nature creating a border between the houses and the market. This is to create a private atmosphere for the houses in the neighborhood. The incorporation of nature is crucial to this design. Without the trees dividing the housing and the market the atmosphere would be too open, and then the feeling of community would be imposing on the people and they would not want to live there because it is crucial to balance private spaces with open ones.

Pineapple Planners

Team Name: Pineapple Planners

We decided to name our team Pineapple Planners because one of our members had a shirt with a pineapple on it. This sparked the idea to go with a nice alliterative Team name that is both fun and easy to remember.

 

Team Logo:

 

Team Bio’s:

The first member of the group is Alec Yeager, he is a freshman from Powell, Ohio. Some of his favorite cities include Chicago, New York, Detroit,Columbus and Hampton Virginia. Alec is  taking this class because i was very fascinated upon reading the email sent out prior to this class being created and also is intrigued by the description of the course material in that email. He is also a bit interested in planning in terms of how cities come together and way things are built and added in cities the way they are. Finally, Alec is also interested in the process that goes behind creating and efficient city. The next member is Justin Nguyen. He is a freshman at the Ohio State University. His hometown is Westerville, Ohio, a suburb just north of His favorite city, Columbus. His interest in CRP2110 is to learn about the aspects that make a great city and apply it later on in architecture. He thinks that there is more than just the aesthetic appeal that goes into a Ideal city, and wants to learn more. Justin Switzer is another member of the Pineapple Planners. He’s a freshman, and is a Health & Rehabilitation/ Pre-Med major. He took CRPlan 2110 this semester because he has always been interested in how a city functions and works. He’s from Greenville, SC but moved to Columbus last February. His favorite cities are Cleveland, Greenville, and Atlanta. The final member of the group is Logan Benson. He is a sophomore from the Columbus suburb of Pickerington, Ohio. Over the course of the week, Logan experiences the three different and diverse communities of Pickerington, Downtown Columbus, and Newark thanks to his dual campus enrollment. A few of Logan’s favorite cities include New York, Chicago, and San Diego. The reason he chose City and Regional Planning as his minor is because he has always been interested in not only the design of buildings but also how their locations in cities are chosen.

 

Recap of Act 1:

During Activity One, the Pineapple Planners, including Justin Switzer, Justin Nguyen, Alec Yeager, and Logan Benson, exchanged quite a bit of information with each other and learned how many similarities and differences that they had with each other. The Pineapple Planners were tasked with drawing a picture of their childhood homes and I the process of explaining our drawings to each other, we learned that Logan and both Justins came from typical suburban houses in typical suburban cities, however with some interesting variations. Justin Switzer’s childhood home was not originally built with all the rooms that he had in his drawing. He informed us while explaining his house, that his room was actually an addition to the original house and as such, actually poked out of the side of the structure. Another thing that became noticeable after activity one was the fact that Justin Nguyen and Alec Yeager both showed a greater talent in sketching and drawing. After completing the assigned tasks of activity one, the Pineapple Planners continued to talk to each other about their goals in college. This conversation led to Justin Nguyen and Logan Benson learning that they actually had the exact same Major and Minor of majoring in Architecture and minoring in City and Regional Planning.

 

Recap of Act 5:

Ecstasy “Walking down this hallway in LeFevre simply screams joy and creativity even without looking for such emotions in the world around oneself, however when you are looking for it, the dancer skipping back and forth through the corridor is clear as day in these artistic platforms of LeFevre Hall.”

 

Curiosity “The simple site of any of the worlds most valuable scientists, whether they are depicted at work, rest or play, always seem to spawn the idea of curiosity in ourselves. In this depiction of Albert Einstein, the great scientist is doing nothing more than laying back and starring off into the distance, however, just from that look on his face, you can tell that he is thinking about what great invention comes next.”

 

Pride “Throughout his career as a poet and play write, William Shakespeare sought after immortality. He knew that his body would eventually perish however he also knew that if he put enough effort into his work, at least a part of him would live on even after his death.”

 

Sorrow “As we were walking back to the classroom at the end of the activity, I happened to see these rust marks streaking down the concrete. Seeing them reminded me of tears coming from the steel beam above creating an impression of sorrow.”

 

Awe “They sometimes say that painters and sculptors do not create their work and instead discover it hidden within the canvas or stone. As we passed this artist and saw the look of awe on his face, all I could hear were those words in my head.”