This was my original graphic representation of this landscape-scale urban design concept. The pages that follow include my article printed in the Isthmus weekly, and what I consider to be projects and plans that are a response to the concept as presented here.

Isthmus Ridgeor what the City of Madison could do with the East Washington corridor if it every got around to the idea of being a city, rather than just a big Wisconsin town/suburb.

A PDF design retrospective by Barry Gore(For internal use only, permission not asked for on reproduction of published graphics.)

BGore DesignBGore Design@yahoo.com

PDF Critique #1

As printed in the Isthmus WeeklyMay 31, 2002

Wayne Bieglow was the head of the City Council for many years.

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As a planner I ask, when is the last time you went to a public meeting and folks asked for “taller and more massive buildings” in any context? The public comments related by staff in this memo seem to show a response to the Isthmus article, including an interest in “mixed uses” (as opposed to strictly “employment center”), a desire for “roof-top gardens,” and builidngs “tall enough to see both lakes.”

Shortly after the Isthmus Ridge article is printed, the new mayor says at a neighborhood meeting that somethng should be done with the Don Miller auto dealership property (or so I am told). Gorman Company developers take up the charge and propose this ten-story mixed-use structure with adjacent residential units.

Rendering by Epstein Uhen Architects for Gorman Company

This graphic shows that Epstein Uhen Architects got and agreed with the Isthmus Ridge urban design concept, starting at ten stories along East Wash-ington, stepping down to five stories on a proposed internal street, and then to three stories facing Mifflin Street. The section graphic is a brilliant reuse and enhancement of the one published in the Isthmus article.

Amazingly, the neighborhood association also accepts the concept and makes published statements in support of the Gorman project, even though it contains an 11-story building (counting rooftop mechanical equipment), which is at a bigger scale than the existing development. Unfortunately, the TIF requested by Gorman is not approved, seemingly due to internal, personal animosity between the district alder and the mayor and City staff.

Wow, folks nearly fall off their chairs when they see what developer Curt Brink proposes for the Mautz Paint block, which is kitty korner to the Gorman/Don Miller block. Brink’s vision is for a complex that includes mid-rise commercial buildings and a hotel that soars to 26 stories! Whether or not Brink is influenced by the Isthmus Ridge concept can not be confirmed, but it takes the bait on the potential for the corridor and runs with it. The architecture is New York historicism in style and the concept is pure “Manhattanism” in keeping with Rem Koolhas’s notion of unbridled speculative zeal expressed in an upward extrusion of space.

Mr. Brink says he can finance the project, but City officials and staff never really respond, other than to shake their heads to see if the mirage city will disappear. The market crashes and by 2009 the property is up for sale or lease, along with many other blocks along the increasingly blighted East Washington.

The City of Madison also responds to the Isthmus article by conducting a new study of East Washington, under the County’s BUILD program. Vandewalle Associates receives a small, really inadequate, contract for $100,000 to study the potential of the important corridor.

Well, after many months of discussion with staff, project committees, elected officials, property owners, and neighborhood groups and residents, the plan sets out its standards for building heights along East Washington. The graphic shows heights of up to 15 stories on the Monona side of the corridor and 12 on the Mendota side. Let’s take a look back at the graphic published in my Isthmus article, and surprisingly enough, without any further input in the process by me, the notion of 12 and 15 stories survives through the process. You’re welcome Madison.

The Vandewalle document seems very concerned with setbacks, and lots of references to views of the pile of marble that is the state capitol, but it never, that is not even once, mentions what is, in my opinion, the key to redeveloping the corridor: to create and market views of the lakes from these upper stories. Lance Berelowitz in reference to Vancouver calls this “the cult of the view,” specifically views of water, in ocean bays, and mountains seen from that city.

I promote the cult of the view in regard to Madison’s lakes, whose potential viewsheds are so unloved, unplanned, and unprotected compared to the imperial, greco-roman brothel on the hill. The graphic below seems less clear than the Isthmus Ridge concept, or Epstein Uhen’s section, in regard to what is being proposed, and why, in relation to the corridor’s position in the landscape and in relation to the adjacent neighborhoods.

Subsequent additions to the final report include more massing studies that help to tease out an understanding of what the corridor might become as an extention of the downtown core. Yet the land use proposal remains defiant to residential uses, even as the corridor sinks to new lows in terms of blight and abandonment. I continue to believe that residential should be part of the mix along East Washington, and residential development, and publicly financed parking garages, should be promoted in order to attract other uses, including office buildings.

Post Script: Just for fun, the precursor to Yahara Station from the Isthmus Ridge period; here is my first drawing for digging side channels into the Yahara River canal. The Washington Square/Thracte Factory area to the north of East Washington is in need of its own masterplan. Here the low lying, frequently flooded area at Mifflin Street is shown excavated for a pocket marina with a center bar/restaurant island pier surrounded by townhouses or flats with their own boat slips. The same concept is applied to the Marling Lumber site, which was for sale in 2007, and the where the BUILD plan allows up to eight-story buildings. Thinking of the ‘Penn Station’ concept, my notation is for “HIGH-SPEED RAIL OFFICE PARK” at First St. and East Washington.

CHEERS!Barry Gore