Urban Planning

Urban Planning

By: Andrew Ewing

         What is Urban Planning?  One blog post probably isn't enough to explain this topic. Urban Planning is one of the main aspects of my thesis project, but what exactly does this mean? Urban planning can range from the planning of an entire city, to the planning of an area in side of a district.  This thesis focuses on the planning of a district in downtown St. Louis. Kevin Lynch writes in The Image of the City that a city has Paths, Edges, Districts, Nodes, and Landmarks. These five things are key to the success of this project and help shape a functional urban plan. Pedestrian and Vehicular paths are an issue because of the location of the baseball stadium to the site.  Roads get shut down, and the volume of pedestrian traffic increases on game day.  As a result the planning of paths around the site will have to take into account the flow of traffic during the week as well as the demands of baseball games.  Edges are an interesting topic and one that is hard to define this early in the process.  However looking at how the edges of the surrounding districts are defined, and how to possibly integrate or add are possible solutions to planning.  This venue as well as the baseball stadium will hopefully create a new entertainment district in downtown St. Louis that helps create jobs and bring in revenue.  Nodes are similar to edges in that it's too early to determine where these are located.  Kevin Lynch describes nodes as "Strategic foci into which the observer can enter, typically either junctions of paths, or concentrations of some characteristic." There are major landmarks located all over the city, and this district will contain a Cardinals Hall of Fame as well as an Anheuser Busch facility which hopefully create a landmark for the district.  Taking these 5 ideas into consideration are some basic elements to consider when master planning this site.