A tip for getting a planning job this summer

December 31st, 2009

I met yesterday someone who recently graduated from my program. May 2009 was a very bad time to be looking for jobs, and he was one of the few to have one right out of school. He suggested choosing what area you most want to work in, and plan on going there over spring break. Send applications to firms or agencies which you might want to work for as winter break ends. Say in those letters that you are going to be available to meet anytime over break, whenever they want. This way, those employers don’t have to handle the logistics of getting you to an interview: why not interview you? He did this, got two interviews over spring break, and was offered both jobs.

Good luck!

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Two Papers, Five Points about reconnecting Winston-Salem

December 29th, 2009
  1. In the first paper, I argue that Winston-Salem should  knit historic Moravian Old Salem and modern commercial Winston back together across Business-40 and the Salem By-Pass using the principles of road dieting.
  2. B-40 could be bridged; W-S should look to prior examples from Atlanta’s 5th St. Crossing, and Boston’s crossing of the Mass Pike (not the Big Dig, but prior crossings in Back Bay), along with many others.
  3. In doing these projects, W-S already has many advantages, including:
    1. the skinnyness of the highways
    2. the topology that allows level crossings
    3. good urbanism on both the Winston and Salem sides of the highway
  4. In the second paper, I looked mostly at the Salem By-Pass and “coffeepot square”, and different methods of analyzing the pedestrian-friendliness, including:
    1. Identifying and Measuring Urban Design Qualities Related to Walkability by Reid Ewing, et al., the stronger tool
    2. The CDC’s Walkability Audit Tool.
  5. I suggest changing the Salem By-Pass into the Salem Parkway, complete with:
    1. Creek daylighting
    2. Oak tree preservation
    3. Historic macadam pavement
    4. And, of course, the great Moravian-Czech-German institution, the Beer Garden.

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Uploaded my resume

December 29th, 2009

It is available here.

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Space Syntax and Metro Systems

December 18th, 2009

In this paper, I try to apply the logic of Space Syntax (sometime I might write something explaining what this is, if you are interested, and if you have access to an academic library, this is a good introduction; if you want to read the book on it, one of  the major works is available online here.  It’s a big file, but it downloads very quickly on  my computer).

Anyway, syntactical analysis is a method of analyzing a network, generally of lines-of-sight or isovists, that has been shown to be rather reliable in predicting areas where pedestrians and automobiles will gather.  I am planning on using it extensively in my MP.

The real chore in this project was finding a program that would conduct spatial analysis using nodes instead of lines.  A program I am using in my MP is Depthmap(1), which has output that looks like this (part of an urban design project this year  – a greenfield site that is based on Loket, Czech Republic(Google Maps) :

Kates Corner Clipped

As you can see, each line has a value based on its connections to other lines.  Most syntactic software works in this manner.    After much searching, I found AGRAPH(2), which allows one to make a network of nodes, such as subway stations.  Here is what that looks like in looking at the Washington Metro:

DC with AGRAPH clipped

The program is somewhat unwieldy, as the nodes cannot be made smaller except by using a computer screen with a higher resolution.  Therefore, the placing of the nodes becomes more difficult when you want to place many of them, as in the Paris metro:

Paris agraph export clipped

Anyway, I graphed nineteen metro systems (3) into AGRAPH, and looked to see whether one particular syntactical measurement, intelligibility, is correlated to boardings/population.  This regression (4) did not give significant results, but this may be due to the small size of the sample.  The scatter plot does suggest that there might be a relationship, and a larger study could take place.  Second, I looked at several syntactical measurements, connectivity, integration, and total depth, and their correlation to boardings in the test case of the Washington Metro.  The regression results here do show significant relationships between the measurements and boardings.

Several next steps are suggested by this project.  First, more systems could be mapped such that a relationship between integration  and ridership could be tested between systems.  Second, the Washington analysis could be repeated for other systems to see if it holds true elsewhere.  Finally, a larger multiple regression could be run, looking at many more factors.

(1) Turner, A. (1998). UCL Depthmap, in University College London Bartlett School of Graduate Studies. Retrieved August 17, 2009 from http://www.vr.ucl.ac.uk/depthmap/; http://www.spacesyntax.org/software/depthmap.asp.

(2) Manum, B., Rusten, E. & Benze, P. (2005) AGRAPH, Software for Drawing and Calculating Space Syntax “Node-Graphs” and Space Syntax “Axial-Maps”, in Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Retrieved December 3, 2009 from http://www.ntnu.no/ab/spacesyntax.

Manum, B., Rusten, E. & Benze, P. (n.d.) AGRAPH, Software for Drawing and Calculating Space Syntax “Node-Graphs” and Space Syntax “Axial-Maps”, in Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Retrieved December 5, 2009 from http://www.spacesyntax.tudelft.nl/media/Long%20papers%20I/agraph.pdf.

(3) Choice of systems and data on ridership thanks to: Derrible, S. & Kennedy, K. (2009). A network analysis of subway systems in the world using updated graph theory. Transportation Research Board 2009 Annual Meeting.

(4) Thanks to: Tab Combs, Amanda Dwelley, Ben Owen and Eric Schultheis for help with reading the Stata output.

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From “Innocents Abroad”

May 17th, 2009

From one of the great travelogues, “Innocents Abroad,”  by Mark Twain: 

One of our favorite youths, Jack, a splendid young fellow with a head full of good sense, and a pair of legs that were a wonder to look upon in the way of length, straightness, and slimness, used to report progress every morning in the most glowing and spirited way, and say:

“Oh, I’m coming along bully!” (he was a little given to slang, in his happier moods,) “I wrote ten pages in my journal last night–and you know I wrote nine the night before, and twelve the night before that. Why it’s only fun!”

“What do you find to put in it, Jack?”

“Oh everything.  Latitude and longitude, noon every day; and how many miles we made last twenty-four hours; and all the domino-games I beat, and horse billiards; and whales and sharks and porpoises; and the text of the sermon, Sundays; (because that’ll tell at home, you know,) and the ships we saluted and what nation they were; and which way the wind was, and whether there was a heavy sea, and what sail we carried, though we don’t ever carry any, principally, going against a head wind always–wonder what is the reason of that?–and how many lies Moult has told–Oh, everything! I’ve got everything down.  My father told be to keep that journal. Father wouldn’t take a thousand dollars for it when I get it done.”

“No, Jack; it will be worth more than a thousand dollars–when you get it done.”

“Do you?–no, but do you think it will, though?”

“Yes, it will be worth more than a thousand dollars–when you get it done. May be, more.”

“Well, I about half think so, myself. It ain’t no slouch of a journal.”

But it shortly became a most lamentable “slouch of a journal.” One night in Paris, after a hard day’s toil in sight-seeing, I said:

“Now I’ll go an stroll around the cafes awhile, Jack, and give you a chance to write up your journal, old fellow.”

His countenance lost its fire. He said:

“Well, no, you needn’t mind. I think I won’t run that journal any more.  It is awful tedious. Do you know–I reckon I’m as much as four thousand pages behind hand. I haven’t got any France in it at all.  First I thought I’d leave France out and start fresh. But that wouldn’t do, would it? The governor would say, ‘Hello here–didn’t you see any thing in France?’ That cat wouldn’t fight, you know. First I thought I’d copy France out of the guide-book, but there’s more than three hundred pages of it. Oh I don’t think a journal’s any use–do you? They’re only a bother, ain’t they?”

“Yes, a journal that is incomplete isn’t of much use, but a journal properly kept, is worth a thousand dollars–when you’ve got it done.”

“A thousand!–well I should think so. I wouldn’t finish it for a million.”

His experience was only the experience of the majority of that industrious night-school in the cabin. If you wish to inflict a heartless and malignant punishment upon a young person, pledge him to keep a journal for a year.

(Twain, Mark (1869) The innocents abroad. Connecticut:American Publishing Company. pp. 40-42. Retrieved from Google Books.) See?  UNC’s honor code has gotten to me.

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Trip to the Foreign Police

May 13th, 2009

So, because I’m staying at an apartment and not a hostel or hotel, within three days of arrival, I had to register my address with the foreign police.  When I first read this in my guidebook, I thought, “no problem.”  I’d just go to the local police station, tell them where I’m staying and all done.

Then I started looking for where I was to go online, and found stuff like this.  With recommendations like “If you’ve already been to the foreign police, then you know what to expect. If not, expect trouble. Long lines, not a word of English, and just general unpleasantness.“ And this.  And the recommendation that you would have to arrive before the place opened at 7:30am to get a reasonable shot at getting in that day.  Finally,  all the online info, from the Czech Ministries, from the Foreign Police website, from bloggers and other sites, said that EU+Switzerland, Norway and Liechtenstein all go through one door that is relatively easy, and all other countries get to go through together.

Fun.  So, I knew last night that I would have to get up this morning at 6:00 to have a hope of getting there before 7:30 and therefore a hope of getting to see someone today.  Had to get up at 6:00.  Therefore, of course, I could not fall asleep at all last night.  I think I got two hours of sleep.  That I am writing this now, and being even remotely coherent, is amazing.  

When I awoke, I looked online, and saw that the Red Sox were still playing on the West Coast.  That kind of blew my mind.

Anyway, up I got, took the tram over, and found the building.  I would estimate that there were some 400 people in line in front of me when I got there at 7:15.  The line was much more orderly than that shown in the above video, however, and it moved relatively quickly (we were close to actually getting into the building within an hour and a half.)  As we were getting close, I heard a woman behind me, I think Russian, who was speaking some English, so I asked her some questions.  She told me that as far as she knew, Americans go through the EU door, and a police officer keeping order confirmed this.  Nowhere is this written!

So I was allowed to go to the other office, in which it took all but five minutes to meet with a clerk, who was very nice, but told me that I had to go to another office in another building a ten minute walk away (!!) But once I got there, again, everything was taken care of in minutes.

Ahhhhh!  I wish they would give some of this info out.  I don’t necessarily like getting this preferential treatment, but I would have liked to have known.  I especially felt uncomfortable when I left the Vietnamese, Indian and Russian people in the hour-long line, but I was also very relieved to not have to stand in it anymore.

Ok, now to bed.

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A long walk

May 10th, 2009

Second day in Prague.  I thought I had defeated jet-lag, but alas!  Woke up at 2:45 pm Prague time, that is, 8:45am Eastern.  And now I’m writing this at 3:54am Prague, 9:54 Eastern. Oh well, always takes a couple days.

walking-second-day-in-prague

My walk around Prague

Walked about 6 miles today, at least according to Gmaps Pedometer.  The first place I discovered was on the same hill that I explored yesterday, a beer garden/plaza area overlooking the city.  Since I had just woken up, I did not partake, but evidently 3:30 is not an unusual time to toss back a few in Prague.  It has some great potential as a place to do observations and interviews a la my Human Use course.  There is the beer garden itself and two grassy areas, one that was used for lounging, and another for standing, talking and throwing a ball around. Both good and awful architecture are represented, but the area seems defined by trees and the views of the city. Between the grassy areas and the beer garden is a wide walkway that appeared to function as a type of plaza, with typical Prague pavers.  William Whyte would recognize this behaviour: people gathering in the middle on the walkway, both adult and children. Older folks are also represented. Whyte would also appreciate the outdoor vending.  The 1936 guidebook to Prague  that I read  for  Human Use (Eugene Fodor’s “1936 on the Continent”) had a whole section on sausage shops, so I guess some things never change. There is a fairly large expat population around here, so it is unsurprising that I heard English a few times.  Perhaps I can conduct my survey on some of these folks?  I can think of a worse way of spending my day.  Finally, the area is made perfect by its spectacular views of the city.  Coming down the hill toward the city, I saw one masochist proving that bikers will use the paths we make available to them.  The beer garden in at the top of this ridge.

Onward into Prague!  This is one of the ugliest buildings in Prague (not in fact the ugliest!  I will get to that at a later post, I am sure).   It is a department store on the periphery of the center of the city.  In my past travels to Prague, the area across the street has been under construction,  but now it is complete.  It is a massive mall, but that looks like this from the outside. Inside is typical mall, however.

On to Old Town Square, in one sense the center of the city, in that that physically, the city does rotate around it, and that it is one of the centers of the tourist image of the city.  Nevertheless, I get the feeling that locals never go there, and when I surveyed architecture students who had lived in Prague, it was generally a place they avoided, largely because of the number of tourists. Evidently the Prague Marathon is on this weekend, and the square was taken over by a concert; the band was singing in English. I am unsure if this was part of the “Marathon Music Festival”, which is evidently “ fast becoming the cultural phenomenon of our time.”  I would be interested to know if in this case there were some Czechs there or not, but my suspicion is that even then, there weren’t many.  The Wenceslas Square-Old Town Square-Charles Bridge-Prague Castle spine seems to be only tourists, all the time.  

Anyway, there were some interesting things to observe anyway.  We talk about human use of the built environment, but what about rodent use?  Demand for seats was certainly higher than supply.  Perhaps some movable chairs?

As mentioned above, a tourist axis extends from Old Town Square to Charles Bridge.  Kevin Lynch would call the axis a path, and the two attractions nodes.  The path is remarkably well defined in how tourists use the area, it will be interesting to see if this is so in their drawn maps.  This crush of tourists is Charles St, depicted in green below.  Meanwhile, this is Platnerska, depicted in red below. While this street is somewhat out of the way, not so much so that people wouldn’t use it instead if crowding were an issue.  Most of the time, you’ll hear me talk about how the presence of people attract more people, but Charles St. perhaps goes beyond what even I would consider pleasant.  Nevertheless, this is the path that people follow.  Is it because it is the obvious choice when standing at each node?  Is it because the guides and guidebooks take them there?  Is it because the winding medieval feeling streets and spaces are what people came to Prague for in the first place, and the broad street of Platnerska doesn’t sell that?   I don’t know, but I’m interested to find out.  People come to Prague multiple times, but do they go to Charles St. and Old Town Square a second time? 

 

Paths between Old Town Square and Charles Bridge

Paths between Old Town Square and Charles Bridge

Even in Prague,and I actually saw two of them! This spectacular alleyway and remnant of the communist policy to put industry in the heart of town is located at the bottom of the map above, really still in the medieval buildingscape.  This guy looks down from above, while even on this little alley folks are trying to get people to follow the rules.  I have seen little evidence of their use.  It would be interesting to get trace evidence on how often they have to be refilled to see if anyone is actually picking up after their dogs.  Some great seating.  Seen a few obelisks and similar constructions around town: the city is often referred to as having a thousand spires.  It would be interesting to see if, once laid out on a map, they create some sort of baroque ordering system.  The city is so often referred to as baroque, but how about in this way?  Some evidence it might be can be seen from the Castle.

On my way back home, I went completely out of the tourist realm, to the backside of the castle.  I found a park that was made out of a small segment of the old walls, including one of the few remaining gates, all of which harkened back to many an Urban Form lecture.  

All in all, a very good day.  I definitely ended the day feeling each and every cobble through the soles of my shoes, however. I don’t think I’ll be trying to fit in with the Europeans by wearing my old dressy shoes anymore!

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First day in Prague

May 8th, 2009

After a day from hell, I have arrived in Prague.  I am staying at a very nice apartment in the Letna area of the city.  

Yesterday was not fun.  I guess more accurately, yesterday and the day before:  three hours on the tarmac in Raleigh before we took off, which caused me to miss my flight to Prague out of Atlanta. Then a flight to Paris upon which I did not sleep much. In Paris I had a seven-hour layover, but I was too tired and dazed to take the train in to explore Paris for a few hours. And finally a flight to Prague.  What was suposed to be a 18-or-so-hour trip morphed into 31 hours.  

Anyway, now that I am here, I am quite happy.  I have uploaded my photos to Flickr.  My apartment is in a cool little building.  And I have a balcony!  Also, there’s a bike lane on my little street, which was totally unexpected.  The walking areas are properly marked as well with the required haberdashery.

Today I went to two of the local parks, Letna and Stromovka.  Letna is a large hill that sits directly to the north of the center of the city, and is probably best known now for a giant metronome sitting upon it.  This is the same location, however, that the world’s largest monument to Stalin stood.   Now the area is known for skateboarding.  There was also a large group of preteens having a dance party, which was odd, especially considering that this was at 11:00 am or so on a national holiday (VE day). The plaza, once statue base, is not as well maintained as I am guessing it was when Stalin stood above it.  

The park is much larger than this, however, with beer gardens, bike and running paths, as well as some great views of the city.

Next I went through Stromovka park to see the old fair grounds, Vystavizte. There was some sort of athletics trade fair on, including people testing out these crazy leg extender spring things.  

Most of the fair was inside, in quite beautiful rooms.  According to my guidebook, it was in the latter room that  the Communist congresses met. In it, the fair people set up a big tent, which I thought was interesting: this beautiful urban room in which people thought to put an outdoorsy meeting place (the tent is far too large for one or even eight people).  The shapes kind of match eachother, though.  Once you leave this space, this tension continues, with temporary paint gun course and some sort of additional fair  space.  The tent is bucky-ball modern, the paint gun course is a soft bubble of a Quonset hut, and the additional building is kind of trying to imitate traditional architecture with its windows.  Meanwhile, the original building could have been a train station. Interseting stuff.

There was also this building, which I post for those of you who took Historic Preservation.  Remember there was one house that Myrick showed us where the panelling had painted-on shadows giving depth?  Myrick also said that the painter was Russian, and this building in Prague shows the type of shadowed panelling that is painted onto lots of Czech buildings.  As you can see, it isn’t trying to fool the eye.

One last thing from the fair: this guy. Maybe if Amtrak had such cuddly mascots it would get more riders?

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Counties

April 6th, 2009

Two more NC counties: Davidson (home of Lexington Barbecue #1; I gotta say: I do like East Carolina BBQ more than West.  Sorry.) and Randolph.

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Whoo hoo!

April 1st, 2009

New county: Forsyth, the home of Winston-Salem.

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