San Francisco day 2
Today I met with Jasmine Kaw of the city of San Francisco’s Department of Public Works and formerly of the Chinatown Community Development Center. Her story was incredible. While doing her masters thesis at Berkeley in landscape architecture, she became interested in the Chinatown alleys through a professor and decided to do her thesis on documenting and proposing changes in the alleys. After the study was completed and problems highlighted, the study received public attention and she, with the CCDC, drew up the alley masterplan in the early 90s. After 3 years if community meetings, government meetings, and other necessaries, the collective forces began to push for transformation. The city was to build a large park for the ultra dense neighbirhood, but the site selected was deemed unfit and sold to a developer. The resulting fund was still to be put toward open space and upkeep so over 2 million dollars were put toward the implementation of the alleyway masterplan. They are wrapping up construction on the 12th alley and the city has now adopted the masterplan as guidelines for development in Chinatown. Since Jasmine began to work for the city, she’s been put in charge of a number of alley projects slowly gaining momentum around the city.
For lunch, I went to the notoriously buzzing Belden Lane where I spoke to restaurant workers about the setup and takedown of furniture and very interesting operable canopies every morning a d late every night. It was a fantastic environment like something off a European street.
San Francisco day 1
This is a great city. The relationship of built space to open space is fantastic despite immense density. The day began with a trip to Chinatown to meet with the Reverend Norman Fong, essentially the director of a large consortia of neighbirhood grassroots planning organizations called the Chinatown Development Commission. He went into great detail about the beginning of the Chinatown alley masterplan drafted with his help by a masters of landscape architecture candidate ten years ago (who now works for the city and I will be meeting with tomorrow) in response to severe neglect of the neighborhoods’ alleys.
My general interpretation of the city is a dominant east west grain, an incredible density to open space relationship. The individual districts and neighbirhoods weld together through infrastructural edges and topographic change.
The alleys thus far are at the most elementary analysis benefitted from their low adjacent building heights and slightly south of east west orientation. Tiny sidewalks line both sides providing a specifically pedestrian environment and a clear demarcation of the difference between the building owners land and the right of way. There seems to be a number of alleys that have the permitting in place to leave furniture in them during the day for restaurant use.
Below is a GPS log of my travels around the city that I am trying to include as part of my study in each city.
Alley poetry
Walking through Pioneer Square, some of the best alleys in the city reveal secrets between their walls for sanitation officials and less official eyes. Some interesting poetry has appeared in one of ny favorite alleys – the one behind the Pioneer Building between James and Cherry and 1st and 2nd. This simple act allows one to read on the walls and pause for a moment. Take a stroll through.
San Francisco alleys itinerary
My first alley study will take place from August 4- 10 in the alleys of San Francisco. I will be focusing on the work done in the Chinatown neighbirhood through the Chinatown Alley Masterplan. I will also be studying the various public and commercial activities taking place in downtown alleys like Beldem Lane, Maiden Lane, and South Park.
During my stay, I will be meeting with Jasmine Kaw, author of the Chinatown Alley Masterplan, Norman Wong of the Chinatown community Association Center, David Winslow, another architect interested in alleys, and various community members working and spending time in the alleys.
Above is a map outlining alleys of interest that I will study. I would again like to thank AIA Seattle and Perkins+Will for their generous sponsorship of this first city analysis.
If you have recommendations on things to see here, please comment. Look for a lot more activity on here beginning in August as the travels begin.
Reading on alleys 2
To continue the alley library, the only contemporary book I’ve come across is a small booklet called Site Unseen: Toronto Laneway Architecture and Urbanism, by the University of Toronto Press. This book highlights a survey of housing neighborhoods with alleys running between lots. It is the result of a studio course taught by Brigitte Shim and Donald Chong at the University of Toronto in 1995. It has a great set of diagrams showing the growth and evolution of the alleys within the selected neighborhoods of Toronto. Apparently laneway housing is an option and the last section of the book presents a dozen student projects depicting uses from community centers and houses to laundromats that hang-dry on the alley.
The notion of alley housing is very interesting as the space available is quite valuable. As far as obstructing right of ways go here in Seattle, there doesn’t seem to be much hope for this at the moment. However, what if housing was to parasitically attach into existing infrastructure above the going-ons below? What if egress stairs both external and internal were braided into a new network of structures? Below a scheme depicts a variety of uses including commercial, park, and residential. This is a series of fire escape follies. These structures could project minimally from 6′-8′ without breaking to many laws as long as they were above 25′ in the air. Imagine seeing pedestrian activity turn into an alley and up the wall to create a linked vertical and horizontal network.
World Cup Alley 2
In an amazing feat of temporary permitting, culture, and a big screen, Alley World Cup game 1 brought nearly 130 people into Nord Alley late this morning. This is the most people I’ve ever seen in an alley in Seattle at one time. Chairs were out, food was brought in from local vendors and restaurants and an apparently solid moment of civic space took place. These games will be played all week at 11:30, come check it out. This is Seattle alley urbanism at its best. I heard some great quips as the game ended specifically one gentleman saying, “this was awesome, and I didn’t even get murdered in the alley!’. This is a fantastic step towards changing the collective perception of the potential of these spaces.
World Cup Alley
Make sure to come down to the Nord Alley in Pioneer Square this weekend to kick off the World Cup with the UK vs. USA at 11:30. A group of organizations spearheaded by Todd Vogel and the International Sustainability Institute have come together to create another fantastic event to catalyze use of the alley and Pioneer Square in general. They have worked together with various cultural organizations representing the various countries playing in the cup to have food vending areas during the games. This event is free and it looks like the weather will be perfect this weekend. For a schedule of all the games and more information please visit http://alleyart.org/Alley_Art_Events.html
Reading on alleys 1
Since a broken set of fingers has recently delayed my drawing proposals, I have started gathering written material on alleys. Thus far the resources have been scant, particularly in addressing modern uses. My favorite is a little book I had cone across quotes from, called Alleys: A Hidden Resource by the Louisville urbanist, Grady Clay. The book was published in 1978 with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. It’s a small book highlighting a brief history of the alleys’ role in the culture of the American city with a specific focus on five alleys in Louisville. These five alleys were selected for their prototypical conditions and locations around the city. Five studies were done with various organisations in the five communities to determine how to make the alleys better places to serve present and future adjacent uses while preserving their character. It’s an incredible precedent for anyone studying how to revitalize alleys in an American city as it highlights the political processes of community meetings and federal and municipal actions necessary to seeing this type of study through. It is also fascinating to look at the five examples on Google street view to see what changes have taken place since the study was done thirty years ago.
“…the quick jump in national automobile ownership – from 2,490,932 in 1915 to 9,239,161 in 1925 – meant that alleys were no longer required as access for horses, barns, and stables with their manure smells and animal noises…alleys were out.”
Innovation incubator
I would like to thank my office, Perkins+Will, for their generosity in providing an additional $1000 to expand my study area to Chicago and San Francisco. I will be visiting these locations between July and August to document what’s going on in their alleys.
Perkins+will is celebrating their 75th anniversary this year and plans to launch a brand new site in early July. The innovation incubator grant is a new program set up by the national leadership institute to facilitate the endeavors and pursuits of individuals within the office striving to better the built environment. The alley project was one of about twenty to receive funding in this first round.
Reclaimed infrastructures
One of the most interesting aspects of cities is their texture -culturally and physically. I have begun to notice tiny places throughout the alleys and the city in general where the natural world has crept up, on, and into our paths and begun another series of layers over our existence. The edge of urbanity blurs at these points of reclamation.
One of my recent favorite instances if this can be found halfway down a pioneer square alley where flowering weeds have found their way into a wall and onto a window sill. This should serve as a model for our continual development of cities. We should allow, assist, and design for new ways that we can coexist with ecological forces so often pushed behind increased returns on investments, efficiencies, etc. Photo credit goes to Karann MacNealy on the Jane’s walk a couple weekends ago.
You can check out this simple welding project that is assisting in this reclamation process off University between 1st and 2nd. It contains some sedums often used for green roofs and continues to flourish. I encourage everyone to plant something in between bricks, under a downspout, on a window sill, or anywhere that will benefit an alley near you. What is now considered a lifeless byproduct of urban efficiency can now be a place for environmental benefit and growth.
Alleys of Seattle 
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