UNIVERSAL DESIGN: PUBLIC SPACES FOR ALL -- 4

BROOKLYN

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates placed so much emphasis on universal design in its creation of Brooklyn Bridge Park that the park’s website has a prominent link that details all of the accessible features on its piers and greenway.

The most dramatic piece of universal design in this 85-acre sustainable waterfront park that stretches 1.3 miles along Brooklyn’s East River shoreline is the 396-foot-long Squibb Park Bridge, a pedestrian bridge connecting Squibb Park at the north end of the historic Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

The 8-foot-wide bridge has gentle slopes, handrails and dramatic vistas of the Manhattan skyline, Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn Bridge. It zigzags through tall oaks, between buildings and over a street, descending 30 feet in elevation from its start to endpoint.

UNIVERSAL DESIGN: PUBLIC SPACES FOR ALL -- 3

RON MACE

Thankfully, a growing number of architects, landscape architects, engineers, town planners and designers are creating warm, welcoming public spaces while embracing universal design as an essential element from Day One.

UNIVERSAL DESIGN: PUBLIC SPACES FOR ALL -- 2

RON MACE

Universal design means many things to many people. But anyone who has used a wheelchair for mobility can tell you what it is NOT:

• A vertical platform wheelchair lift foolishly installed to provide access to beachfront shops and cafes — when the reality is keys that are required to operate the lifts get lost, sea spray rusts parts, and the enclosures around the lifts become filled with garbage or are used as bathrooms by drunken partiers.

• A park designed only with nondisabled visitors in mind, with winding staircases, inaccessible water features and barely barrier-free restrooms. The only accessibility features are ugly retrofits that accommodate disabled guests, but unacceptably segregate them from the main pedestrian routes that remain impassible to wheelers.

• Designs by architects and planners who clearly wish they could seek a zoning variance that absolves them from any responsibility for designing public spaces for people with limited mobility.

UNIVERSAL DESIGN: PUBLIC SPACES FOR ALL -- 1

RON MACE

Universal Design: “The design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.”

— definition by the late architect Ronald L. Mace,  founder of the Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University.

https://stories.universaldesign.org/exclusive-interview-with-the-late-ron-mace-father-of-universal-design-7527ba104cba

JANE'S WALK

WHAT IS THE GROVE BECOMING?

PlusUrbia’s Maria Bendfeldt led a portion of Jane’s Walk in Coconut Grove, a walk honoring the memory of urbanist Jane Jacobs, on Saturday May 5.

The event was part of a global walking event known as Jane’s Walk, in honor of Jane Jacobs, the author of The Death and Life of American Cities and a pillar of the walkable cities movement.

The walk was led by Coconut Grove resident Hank Sanchez-Resnik, the founder and president of Bike Coconut Grove, the sponsor of the walk.

The Jane’s Walk explored the commercial heart of Coconut Grove and the numerous major developments under way.

There were stops at several key locations where new buildings are being built, older buildings are being remodeled, and a new vision of Center Grove is emerging.

Along the way, the walking group talked with planners and developers who are behind the changes.

The walk ended at St. Stephens Church with a presentation of the master plan for the Grove’s commercial center developed by the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District.

https://plusurbia.com/janes-walk-what-is-the-grove-becoming/

ORTAKOY CAMII

ON THE BOSPHORUS

Ortakoy Camii is "pint-sized" in comparison to other mosques "on the other side of the golden horn".

The mosque was built in Neo-baroque style.

In the interior of the mosque, there are wide, "high bay windows" which refract its reflection in water as well as daylight. 

There are also several panels of calligraphy by Abdulmecid himself.

ORTAKOY CAMII

ON THE BOSPHORUS

Ortakoy Camii consists of a two-story "sultan apartment" which has a "U shaped" plan, a main venue with a square plan which is covered with one dome.

The "sliced facades" with mounting columns are "enriched" by carvings as well as relief, giving the mosque a "dynamic appearance". 

There are two rows of windows providing the main venue a "good illumination".