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A stealthy reimagining of urban public space | Elizabeth Diller

16th February 2021 Ted Talks 46

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Cities are becoming increasingly privatized: commercial real estate dominates the streets, carving up open space that once belonged to the public and selling it as a commodity to the highest bidder. Architect Elizabeth Diller explores the causes and effects of this growing threat — and takes us on tour of her groundbreaking projects aimed at creating landscapes for the public to enjoy, from the High Line in New York City to Zaryadye Park in Moscow.

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46 Comments on A stealthy reimagining of urban public space | Elizabeth Diller

  7. I feel like the need for shared outdoor space where people can eat, socialize and appreciate art is or should be expanded on in a big way! I loved seeing this happening and the idea of taking any space we can get.

    Reply

  9. I visited the NYC site at the beginning when they started around the old meat market area and it’s BEAUTIFUL!!! AMAZING what they have done there!! Thank you!!

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    • I’m happy you find it interesting. I’m a former urban planner and I eventually had to give-up my profession because of the widespread corruption and bigotry that I encountered in that field. I quickly discovered that for a lot of cities the planner is just a stumbling block that prevents bringing in tax revenue (and sometimes personal revenue too). While projects like those shown here are really interesting for the people, you need a strong team of hard headed collaborators to bring it to fruition.

      Reply

    • @François Laverdure
      Where do all the tax revenue go anyway? Cities like San Fran must make so much but I never see it used anywhere.

      Reply

    • @bananian Cities have a lot of expenditures. And everything is dreadfully expensive simply by the scale of the city. When we look at the city, we think of city hall, public libraries and parks. But there is still aqueduct services that need to clean the water and then pump it through a network of hundreds and thousands of miles. And there’s sewers, roads, sidewalks, gutters that all need maintenance. For that you need equipment like trucks and mechanical brooms. Then there’s refuse collection, recycling. When you consider that a single truck costs over 100,000$ and you multiply all this, it really adds-up. In order to acquire new equipment or repair infrastructure, cities mostly have to borrow that money, so they have to pay interest on that. And I haven’t gotten into staffing the various positions that are required. But all this spending comes with a slight twist: cities are now allowed by law (in most places) to declare a financial loss at the end of the year. That really puts pressure on the managers.
      Just to give an idea, at the end of my street there is a small park with a small playground. Last summer it was re-built to the latest safety standards. That means all the equipment was hauled-off, new concrete was poured and new jungle gym and slides were installed. The whole thing cost close to 1 million $ for just an 80×80 ft. playground.
      The city of San Francisco has 1,260 miles of paved roads. Just imagine the asphalt bill for patching those.
      And I’m sure that I forget some stuff… That’s why cities often take the easy way out and simply build anything anywhere just for the sake of generating income. Don’t forget that elections happen every 4 years (at least that’s the case in Canada), so elected officials just care about that time period while citizens will have to live with their choices for the rest of their lives.

      Reply

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