Other Tangents
Great Street Life in Europe
Every place in the world has something to teach us and if we can be open to learning the lessons from each place we visit, we'll all take home valuable lessons to use in the built environment we add to every day. Here are some favorite examples.
June 29, 2011
Last summer, I was lucky enough to get to travel through Europe for a little over three weeks. It was my first real time there and it really brought about a greater appreciation for great street life. (Let me clarify: I've always loved great street life, this just cemented some thoughts about how to do it in denser environments.) Seeing it has been a year since that trip I thought I'd take a look at some of my favorite shots from that trip and the lessons learned.
Seattle, in particular, is filled with truly vibrant neighborhoods and some surprisingly decent outdoor seating for a city that has such, um, questionable weather. But what was so great about Europe was how much they truly forced the issue and found ways to insert great outdoor living and pedestrian environments into spaces that America would shy away from. Part of that is environmental: they have old cities with very little space and thus have no other options. The other part is cultural, of course, and stems from an appreciation of spending time outside.
I think Seattle has been moving in the right direction over the last decade that I've been here and I love getting to work on projects where we can help move along the pedestrian experience.
Here are some general thoughts and photos to go along with them:
There's something magical about flower shops. I think it is because some of the best flower shops have very creative people working in them who like to bring their naturally beautiful products out to the street. I don't think anything helps liven up a street like a flower shop. Heck, you can even be under a bridge and have a great flower shop!
Here in London a flower shop takes hold under a bridge:
In Paris, flower shops seem to be pretty much anywhere. Note how little space they leave for actual pedestrians. This is a great opportunity to slow traffic down and get people to stop and, if you'll forgive me, smell the roses:
Another fun thing about an urban environment is the possibility for walk-up windows for food. Great little coffee shops or even pastry shops could use these for quick orders. They also help liven up the whole experience. There's a great little burrito walk-up window near Pike Place Market in Seattle that I've always loved. Here in London, this shop used an actual window for orders and to cool pies. Brilliant.
Plazas are something that a lot of great urban planners readily embraced many decades ago. Most in the US are now cold and lifeless places because they were never properly programmed. While in Italy, we spent so much time in piazzas in small little towns that you couldn't help but feel how wrong some of the American plazas got it. Open public space MUST be programmed; i.e.; given a reason to exist. Even in this small little hill town we were able to witness a great old motorcycle show (seen here from afar) and sit outside at a quaint hotel restaurant and enjoy my favorite Italian beverage, a Negroni.
The most obvious way, of course, of creating great lively pedestrian spaces are with outdoor seating and cafes. That's readily understood here in America and Seattle, in particular. But even Seattle has rather strict requirements about how much space they require and how much space pedestrians need. I thought this example in Paris was a great way of creating vibrant cafe seating while minimizing the space required. Have everyone sit on one side with little tables between them. I'm waiting for the opportunity to use this in a project here in Seattle.
Speaking of narrow environments, NOTHING was quite like the street we stayed at in Rome in the Trastevere neighborhood. These ancient streets were small by design and the inhabitants had no choice but to make them work. This street was one of my favorite and I loved how a small family restaurant spills out into the tiny street leaving just enough room for a car to get by (that is the taxi we took from the airport in the photo). When we ate dinner there at night, we took a video where you can see how close the garbage truck comes right by our table (some tables had to move their plates in so they weren't knocked off!). While definitely a safety issue, it certainly shows how dense and wonderful an urban environment can be for a pedestrian.
The big take away from our trip through Europe wasn't how much better it was than Seattle or America, it is simply different. Every place in the world has something to teach us and I think if we can be open to learning the lessons from each place we visit we'll all take home valuable lessons to use in the built environment we add to every day.
