"We shape our
buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us." -
Winston Churchill (http://www.winstonchurchill.org)
Churchill said about the effects of buildings could be said equally
about neighborhoods, communities, cities or regions. And they all
need good cores to be successful.
Churchill is only one of many historians,
philosophers, scientists, architects, planners and students of
cities, life, economics and the environment to discuss the
importance and value of cores, centers or downtowns. A few who are
especially important include
The historical perspective provided by these thinkers makes it
clear that attractive, highly accessible and compact downtowns,
cores and village and community centers -- and similar
concentrations of mixed use – will build community, increase
personal opportunity, reduce costs and improve the environment more
than any other strategy for city or regional growth.
More recently, Donovan Rypkema summarized this better than
"...(T)he future of downtown and the
importance of downtown are two different things. I do not know what
the future of downtown is, but here is what I am certain of:
- If we are to have an effective
environmental policy, downtowns are important.
- If we are to have an effective
transportation policy, downtowns
- If we are to have meaningful historic
preservation, downtowns are important.
- If we want Smart Growth, downtowns are
not only important but irreplaceable.
- If a local official wants to claim the
treasured mantle of fiscal responsibility, downtown
revitalization is imperative.
- If we want to avoid Generica, downtown
is essential to establish differentiation.
- If the community is going to compete in
economic globalization without being swallowed by cultural
globalization, downtown revitalization has to be central to the
- If new businesses, innovative
businesses, and creative businesses are going to be fostered and
encouraged, a community will need a downtown where that can take
- If we are to have buildings with
meaning, buildings with value, buildings with values, they will
- If we are to have public places of
public expression, we need a
- If a community is going to embrace
diversity instead of hide from it, celebrate diversity instead
of deny it, then that has to take place downtown, it ain't gonna
happen anywhere else...."
A Pro-Core Core Strategy is Positive
Cores are compatible with market forces and
environmental imperatives. There is a good chance for success. A
pro-cores strategy does not require highly specific standards or a
rigid plan. Pro-core strategies should leverage and harness natural
forces and tendencies to create healthy cores and maximize their
beneficial impacts on the economy, environment and the cultural and
social fabric of their regions.
There is also renewed interest in trying to
"do things right." This stems from three things. First,
the spread of news about accumulating successes, techniques and
experience. Second, the widening understanding of the costly results
of a lack of planning or poor planning. And third, growing awareness
that resource limits will no longer allow the continued waste of
development patterns and practices of the past. The need to use
cores as a strategy becomes apparent when we see the futility of so
much of the debate about urban sprawl. Endless material from
magazines, conferences, workshops and talk shows decry the
environmental, economic and social costs of the smothering of our
cities, suburbs and rural areas by costly, wasteful and disorganized
sprawl Yet, all of this agonized discussion produces few meaningful
or realistic solutions. Many of the supposed "answers" -
growth limits, moratoria, withholding of utilities and access and
the application of ever larger home and commercial site requirements
- only aggravate the problems they are intended to solve and they
often make them worse. At best a pro cores strategy would be far
more than just an accumulation of mixed-use projects. Rather, it
would be part of a new vision of how we are to deal with growth
based on use of cores as a key tool for its implementation. Anthony
Downs made the case for such a vision in his book New Visions for
Metropolitan Areas, (Brookings, 1994). The development,
adoption, and pursuit of this vision is the goal of this site.
Both History and Current Trends Support
Principles for the development of downtowns
and centers are old. They go back to a time when walking was the principal method of
movement. They were codified in ancient cities and have been applied
to various degrees throughout history, often with great success.
But the dominance of the auto and the growing
impact of computers and electronics have made many feel that
downtowns and cores are no longer relevant or important The value of
these principles - is discussed elsewhere in "Benefits of
Cores?". However, more people are making the case that
downtowns and cores are more important now than ever.
Munich is just one of many cities
to establish “pedestrian zones” to
make its downtown more attractive.
This case is made well by Joel Kotkin in his
book The New Geography7 . He says that people
increasingly select places to work and live that provide a variety
of rewarding experience and opportunity. Growing energy costs are
also increasing the energy advantages of cores by leaps and bounds.
Cores Support Values
Good downtowns, cores and corridors generate
tremendous value in all of the areas listed above: creation of
opportunity, providing better access to that opportunity, and
optimizing efficiency, economy and conservation.
Communication is the best known and the
most historic function of cores. It is the communication of the
crossroads, the river crossing, the agora. It is the communication
provided by the coming together of people in villages and towns and
then cities. This very elemental communication is that of easy and
informal face to face contact of the kind that can only be obtained
in cities, and especially in relatively concentrated cores and
Although modern electronic communication has
eliminated much of the need for such contact, that need still
exists. This point was strongly argued in 1968 by Barton-Aschman in
their research on patterns and densities of development in cities.
"Failure to permit or encourage higher
densities of development in certain locations is a source of many
urban frustrations and shortcomings; it is a major obstacle to the
achievement of high levels of opportunity."8
have lots of fun and build community spirit at the Easter egg hunt
on this village lawn each year
Kotkin says good downtowns or cores, as they are defined
here, are one of the most important potential attractions to the
kind of "knowledge" workers who will determine what
parts of the world and of individual regions will thrive and which
will fail. His book is essential reading to anyone who wants to
better understand this point of view.
dwellers in Chicago at
one of their several
weekly farmer's markets
Here is a summary of the benefits that cores,
centers and corridors provide:
- Access to the widest possible
range of opportunities:
This has always been an essential role of cities and especially
- The reality and “sense” of
community: Few cores do
this well. Yet this goal is becoming more important in view of the
increasingly diverse and transient nature of society and the lack
of unifying forces.
- The ability to regenerate
themselves and their communities: This
is mainly achieved by assuring a healthy mix of land uses. It is
difficult for single-use developments to adjust to economic,
social and technological change. They are most often the first to
- Compatible with transportation:
Capacities and locations of roads and transit must be matched with
land use. Well planned cores will do this, provide densities and
destinations that support transit, and minimize traffic impacts on
- Housing within and near cores,
especially affordable and senior housing: Growth in the number of
seniors unable to drive and of areas hostile to pedestrians make
this a goal of major importance.
The Federal Center For Disease Control says that a major cause of
disease is lack of exercise. Good cores often provide the best
opportunities to walk in their communities. (Note the walkers in
shopping malls.) These should be increased to improve the
functioning of cores as well as public health.
Opportunities to walk
Preserve and communicate the community’s
culture: Features reflecting the culture and history of a
community are often embedded in their cores. These should be
preserved, enhanced and made available to all.
Optimize efficiency of infrastructure:
Cores do this in two ways. First, by reducing demands on
infrastructure, for example, by reducing the need for travel or
shifting travel from auto to pedestrian and
transit modes. (Studies show potential savings in the billions of
dollars for a region from widespread development of good cores.)
Second, by serving more users with infrastructure already provided
and by more intense use and sharing of infrastructure, such as
open space and parking.
Reduce the negative effects of sprawl and
achieve conservation and efficiency in both urban and rural
environments. Wide spread application of core concepts and
principles could have a major impact on reducing the negative
impacts of sprawl, especially the scattering of job and commercial
policies should be an important part of any effort to deal with
sprawl and to create sustainable environments.
Who this Site is For
This website provides information and ideas
from many sources to help understand the value of these concepts,
especially those of "downtowns and cores" - and how to
Specific site objectives are to:
are some who we hope will find this site useful:
officials and citizens looking for a highly effective way to
strengthen existing cities and neighborhoods
or regional officials looking for meaningful tools to deal with
problems of sprawl and growth management
professionals wanting to follow proven principles of core planning
and design and to learn more about implementation
and community leaders concerned about the health of the community’s
working to preserve and improve our environment
of business, governmental, health and educational organizations looking
for healthy mixed-use location
and organizations looking for good locations for housing
organizations who want transportation systems to work better
1Lewis Mumford was perhaps the world’s
most influential historian and analyst of the history and culture of
cities. Margaret Mead one of its most important sociologists. Victor
Gruen the acknowledged “father” of the modern shopping center as well
as its sharp critic. And Richard Meier an insightful writer about the
driving importance of communication in the conduct and evolution of
human affairs and in the shaping of cities.
2Mumford, Lewis, The Culture of
Cities, Harcourt Brace, 1938.
Victor, Centers for the Urban Environment, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1973.
Margaret, Values for Urban Living, The Annals of the Society of Social and
Political Science, 1957.
5Meier, Richard, L., A Communications
Theory of Urban Growth, Joint Center for Urban Studies of MIT and
Donovan, The Importance of Downtown in the 21st Century, The Journal of the
American Planning Association, Winter, 2003.
Joel, The New Geography, How the digital revolution is reshaping the American
Landscape. Random House, 2000, 2001.
Associates, Guidelines for New Systems of Transportation, U.
S. Department of Transportation, 1968.
Linked Pages and Sources for further information and references.
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