Design & Construction

When Richard Flierl, ASLA, whose professional background is in urban redevelopment and planning, joined the Atlanta-based architectural firm of Cooper Carry in January 1999, he came in under a company request to bring something new to combine with the company’s landscape architectural expertise. The resulting Center for Connective Architecture is not only new for Cooper Carry— it’s an innovative idea that may change the entire industry and the types of professionals that it hires.

The Center is a Cooper Carry studio specializing in urbanism issues and the design and planning of projects ranging from urban redevelopment, to new town planning, to plazas, parks, main street and entertainment districts. What’s new is Flierl’s approach to who plans these venues. He thinks that in addition to traditional architects, designers, planners and engineers, the planning team should include, from the very beginning, peripheral professionals like sociologists and psychologists and the people who will actually live, work and spend their leisure time on the site.

“It’s a brand new, multidisciplinary look at how to solve issues of the city,” says Flierl. “This is a visionary
approach to land planning that is a think tank process.” He says the Center is studying how to craft new cities or recreate old ones so that they are better utilized. In order for the process to be successful, “It has to be egoless, with an attitude of fairness,” he says. “It’s a listening process. People can build passion for a place to build a dream. But it requires intellectual understanding in order to construct it.”

In addition to bringing in outside professionals, Flierl is also consolidating existing Cooper Carry groups and pulling in knowledge from other company offices. The Center is based in Atlanta, but Cooper Carry’s Main Street Group in Alexandria, Virginia, which has been studying what makes a main street work, will now become part of the Center, as will a group in the company’s New York office that has been studying urban issues in the Bronx and Brooklyn.

Although the center will conduct ongoing studies in a universal sense, it will also be directly involved in specific project planning. And each project may require different members of the planning team due to local circumstances. For a project
currently under development in Ft. Worth, Texas, the Center is working with city officials in order to understand local ordinances and how to work within them.

“In some instances, we discuss how we can rewrite laws,” he says, explaining that existing municipal codes in the United States can inhibit modern downtown redevelopment, which often calls for mixed-use venues. “We’ve created many problems with zoning laws requiring setbacks or no stacking,” he points out, referring to typical city ordinances. “We’ve separated uses by zoning, including separating types of housing.”

Flierl believes the developer should come to the table at a very early stage in the planning process. “Because the developer ‘makes it happen,’ then we avoid a plan that sits on the shelf because it’s not realistic,” he explains, adding that bringing key players together can often make a deal more attractive to a developer. “Downtown redevelopment requires incentive from the public sector. The retail developer needs help for parking.” For this reason, the think tank may involve financial experts who understand what kinds of funding might be available and where to get it. “It’s not just a matter of the city fixing the sidewalk, but pulling in more money for more redevelopment altogether,” he says.

In addition to gathering professionals, an important part of the planning process involves listening to the people who will use the street. “As architects, we spend a lot of time studying the facade of a building, but it’s people who are impacted by how it meets the street. And it’s people who will use it.” For this reason, he likes to bring on board sociologists and psychologists who know why people act the way they do. “But we also open the door to citizenry and public officials to be part of the design. They come together in an open forum to craft their own places.”

By listening to varied collections of professionals, scientists and citizenry, the Center for Connective Architecture came up with some interesting observations. Flierl says that people really want to live closer to their workplaces and to be able to go downstairs and shop. In a turnabout from the race to suburbia that started after World War II, the convenience of the car is now becoming less important than the ambiance of walking the street to shop. “People want to look in windows. But if you bring retail right up to the street, you ask patrons to drive, then park, then walk. So we need to create great streets that cater to the pedestrian as well as the auto.”

A New Playing Field for Planning

Flierl says the Center’s focus groups have also pointed out that “retail, alone, is not enough.” He feels that today’s marketplace needs retail topped by office space and living space— what he calls ‘living with retail.’ “People will live in high density areas if they have a park and the ability to walk to a store,” he says. “But if you just pack them in, they don’t want it. So, we’re looking for greener streets.”

While the idea of mixed-use facilities, leading to 24-hour venues, is new but not that new, the reason that they are happening is surprising. Traditional wisdom had it that 24-hour streets were thought to boost retail sales and were therefore being promoted by retailers. But the Center has found that the longer the day is extended, the more safe the environment is perceived to be. So the 24-hour street is actually a response to a human need. And regarding that park that everyone says they want in an urban setting? “If it doesn’t have a use around it, it’s viewed as unsafe,” Flierl says. “If houses are around it, it’s viewed as more safe. People need to know that eyes are on it.” Therefore, he says, the Center’s study groups have discovered that there should be less planting around the edges of a park so that people can see in. Findings like this are contributing to defining CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design), an acronym that is becoming a buzz-word in urban design.

Future areas of discussion are likely to involve how suburbs can get the amenities of downtowns, and vice versa, how urban areas can become neighborhoods. “Transit is also going to be an important consideration,” says Flierl. “There is lots of discussion now about whether to bring in more rail and light rail or widen freeways.” He also feels that provisions for youth activities will play a greater part in urban venues— partially because they can be used to energize the street, but mostly because people want them.

Flierl believes that ‘connective architecture’ literally means making dreams into reality by creating the opportunity for different disciplines to be a part of the design process. He feels there is a need for more input in the critical times of that process. And he believes so strongly in the collaborative concept of the Center for Connective Architecture that he promises.

For more information, contact Rich Flierl, director, Center for Connective Architecture, Cooper Carry, 3520 Piedmont Road NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30305; 404-237-2000, ext. 351.