Security mindset threatens civic design
New Urban News Article with images and sidebars, 9/1/2004
Ways are sought to protect buildings and their occupants without seriously damaging urban livability.
After the loss of nearly 3,000 lives at the World Trade Center three years ago, no one doubts that large risks have come to American soil, or that government agencies must do something about them. But some designers believe the remedies that security experts have recommended — and that the federal government has adopted — threaten to harm the public realm through undue isolation of public buildings.
A reaction against the excesses of the federal security regimen is starting to form. One of its chief exponents is David Dixon, principal in charge of planning and urban design at Goody, Clancy & Associates in Boston. “The war against terrorism threatens to become a war against the livability of American cities,” says Dixon. “In the rush to respond to the threat of terrorism,” says Dixon, “a loose network of public officials, architects, developers, engineers, lawyers, planners, security consultants, and others who influence building codes [is] creating a new generation of planning and design regulations.”
Concerns of urban designers center on instructions similar to the series below, which has been applied to buildings such as federal courthouses:
