UTSOA

The purpose of this course is insight. There is no discreet body of knowledge about urban design. It is not architecture, and it is not planning. Architecture is a private sector activity; i.e. investment and construction. Planning is a public sector activity, i.e. management, inventory, allocations, and infrastructure. Urban design is both - it encompasses all of both worlds to make things happen in the public sector. The fuel to make things work will always be the private sector. Everything that truly matters exists between the two worlds of Planning & Architecture and between the public and the private sectors.

Public sector does little to create visions or urban design plans. Public projects are implemented without regard for larger visions for context, for the future, for urban footprints, or for economic development. In short, there is virtually no Urban Design in the public sector.

The private sector has multiple objectives, but the overriding one is to maximize profits. Projects take place on designated expensive property in critical time frames. Interest carry and suffocating regulation create a sense of desperation on the part of the developers. Due to time frames and profit objectives, there is rarely the opportunity to consider good Urban Design.

Urban Design creates the vision of synergy, of quality, of economic development, of tax base creation, and of sustainability. These are the missing ingredients of both the public and private sectors.

There will be two projects during the semester in addition to the lectures and guest discussions. Project number one called the "snapshop" will take a vertical (in depth) look at a specific issue such as a T.O.D. or rail transit. The second project, and the main one of the two, will be a "panoramic view" of a place, i.e. a horizontal story of that place. The objective is to give insight into how it came to exist. History, politics, leadership, policy, investment, style, and or any force that shaped, or shapes that place, over and over through time.

The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) Conference will be held in Austin, in the spring of 2008. Student projects will focus on telling the urban design story of Austin which will become part of the publication that will be available for the 2000 or so C.N.U. attendees in 2008. This event will place Austin and the University of Texas squarely at the center of all future dialogue on Urban Design in this country.

At the beginning of the semester, students with disabilities who need special accommodations should notify the instructor by presenting a letter prepared by the Services for Students with Disabilities Office. To ensure that the most appropriate accommodations can be provided, students should contact the SSD Office at 471-6259 or 471-4641 TTY.