AUTHOR’S SCOPE ANALYSIS: ROCKFORD,IL
KARRIE HEIDEMAN KEVIN VAZQUEZ
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT-INTRODUCTION
1
IMAGE OF THE CITY vs ROCKFORD
2
THE AESTHETIC TOWNSCAPE vs ROCKFORD
3
CHICAGO vs RIVERSIDE vs ROCKFORD
4
URBAN DESIGN ROCKFORD
5
CITY OF MANUFACTURING
6
IMAGE OF ROCKFORD ANALYSIS
7
CONCLUSION
9
WORKCITED
10
ABSTRACT This paper presents research, sketches, photos and our personal encounter with the class visit to Rockford,IL in order to properly analyze the city. The ideals of Kevin Lynch in his book The Image of The City and Yoshinobu Ashihara in his book The Aesthetic Townscape will be referenced to better formulate a response for the city's future development that will be applied to our own urban design proposals for the city of Rockford in assignment 4. Surrounding townships such as Timberlane, Belvidere, Poplar Grove that reside in Boone and Winnebago,IL counties will be compared to get an understanding of the third largest city in Illinois versus the endless amount of cornfields that surround it. INTRODUCTION TO ROCKFORD The city of Rockford with a population of over 150,000 is located in the northwest quadrant of Illinois 90 miles from Chicago.Referred to as the Forest City, Rockford is known for various historical and cultural locations, including Anderson Japanese Gardens, which was visited on the class trip. Rockford is located in Winnebago county and was strategically positioned between Chicago and Galena, which made it a perfect candidate for industrial development. Rockford was known for its manufacturing of heavy machinery and tools; it was the second leading center of furniture in the nation and eventually automotive, aerospace, and healthcare industries, as well as tourism and downtown attractions. In the twentieth century, Rockford saw a change in their demographic. Italian, Polish, Lithuanians and African Americans replaced the once-dominant Irish and Swedish descendants. The city has also been subject to multiple political issues, including times of the prohibition. Efforts to revitalize the downtown were introduced in the 1970s with the addition of a shopping mall and a multipurpose arena,which created controversy because at the time it sectioned off part of Rockford’s Main Street leaving nearby business owners less opportunity to thrive because of the lack of vehicle traffic. By the Twenty-first century, Rockford's economy had come to a halt due to factories and small business closing down due to the rise in tax and wages that were significantly lower in the nineteenth century. Outsourcing of manufacturers became essential for industries to survive in today's economy. Downtown improvements became the priority with the controversial pedestrian mall being removed making Main Street a two-lane street creating more opportunity for small business to have a chance to thrive. Millions of dollars were spent to connect main attraction around the city with river walks and open-air amphitheaters. Even before the Great Recession of 2007 had an effect on Rockford, the city had issues with flooding of its Keith Creek. The city was forced to widen the creek and demolish over a hundred homes to combat the severity of future floods, which created a decline in population and was rated number three on America's Most Miserable City by Forbes in 2013.By 2014 the unemployment rate of the city declined from 12% to 9% according to city-data.com. Crime on the west side of town became a problem with the lack of jobs and opportunity. Homicide rate reached an all time high in areas of old and underdeveloped neighborhoods, which contained many houses that were vacant due to decline in population and simply nobody wanting to buy them. The city government has developed many programs to attempt to address these problems and has seen some success.
1
IMAGE OF THE CITY vs ROCKFORD Image of the city is a book written by Kevin Lynch a city planner and designer. The book describes a five-year study that describes the perception of a built structure in the context of a city. Throughout the text he asks questions like: What does the city’s form actually mean to the people who live there? What can the city planner do to make the city’s image more vivid and memorable to the city dweller? These questions relate to the city of Rockford because of its current situation of revitalization. Lynch answers these questions with research and case studies on multiple cities such as; Los Angeles, Boston, and Jersey city in order to create a guide for the building and rebuilding of cities. Lynch explains that an urban system has to be held legible, its image has to be perceived by the observer and selected by the community and manipulated by the planner. Legibility and imageability would then lead to the recognition of a structure and giving it an identity in its urban system. Lynch recognizes the different relations of complexity with every structure and its elements. Lynch describes these relations as “Elements like nodes, paths, districts, edges, landmarks make a city” The book introduces the concept of legibility as the ease in which people understand the layout of a place. Mental maps are created by individuals and vary on location, paths taken, and landmarks are seen. Paths as channels by which people move along; roads, sidewalks, trails, etc. Edges as dividing lines between 2 phases; seashores, railway lines, etc. Districts as the medium to large sections of the city, characterized by a wealthy neighborhood; suburbs, college campuses, etc. Landmarks as a point of reference;signs, buildings, stores, etc. Nodes as areas that contain strategic spots where the extra focus is given; busy intersection, popular city center, etc. Rockford contains multiple examples of these and with Lynch's relation between environmental image and urban life, Rockford would have been seen as a successful image by Lynch with the current development being introduced to the city. The concept of Imageability is introduced by Lynch as “the quality of a physical object, which gives an observer a strong vivid image.” A high imageable city would be well formed and would contain distinct paths. Rockford's bridges and river walks that connect downtown could be seen as part of the cities imageability because they are instantly recognizable to the locals and can be aware of their surroundings when near or cross them. Lynch makes it clear that viewers rely on these “elements” to make their city imageable. Rockford is succeeding with its well-designed paths that include lighting, clarity of direction, and points of interest. Being placed in a well-orientated form around the city increases the viewer to see and remember patterns. These patterns turn into mental maps, Lynch describes it as “A person’s perception of the world is known as a mental map” basically an individual's own map of the world. Mental maps of individuals are constantly investigated, for example when asking for directions you get an idea of one's view of the city or their “mental map.” One's mental map is strong when a city has a strong image. Lynch makes it clear that every person has a different mental map according to his or her understanding of the city. These mental maps create a public image of the city that helps planners, engineers, and architects understand the placement of structures in their urban design solutions. “There seems to be a public image of any given city which is the overlap of many individual images. Or perhaps there is a series of public images, each held by some significant number of citizens. Such group images are necessary if an individual is to operate successfully within his environment and to cooperate with his fellows. Each individual picture is unique. with some content that is rarely or never communicated, yet it approximates the public image, which, in different environments, is more or less compelling, more or less embracing.” (Lynch)
2
THE AESTHETIC TOWNSCAPE vs ROCKFORD The Aesthetic Townscape is a book written by Yoshinobu Ashihara a Japanese Architect known for the Komazawa Olympic Gymnasium and the Sony Building in Tokyo Japan. The book discusses a mix of architecture and urban space with nature and space in mind. Ashihara analyzes the composition of townscapes in different cultures through review of external appearance in architecture and general aesthetic design of large-scale planning. Ashihara makes the point that spatial perception and spatial appreciation vary amongst cultures and are apparent in architecture from garden design to urban planning. Ashihara compares Western culture and its obsession of boundaries opposed to how the Japanese enunciate surface area. Rockford has an order to it when in downtown, but this order is interrupted when we branch out to the forest and gardens Rockford is known for. The path is not forcing itself on nature, instead of becoming a part of it by allowing the environment to dictate the traveler's experience through nature rather than away from it. Ashihara relates western walls to thin Japanese partitions built out of wood, bamboo and paper as a symbolic separation of inside and outside whereas traditional walls are intended to separate and protect the interior from the environment, examples of this could be seen at Anderson Japanese Gardens and the Farnsworth House with its glass walls to allow the environment to be part of the living experience. “If we take further the ideas explored earlier in relation to the Gestalt ideas of “figure” and “ground,” where does it take us? It prompts us to examine, for example, the conditions of walls that are the borderline between interior and exterior space through analysis of the townscape.”(Ashihara) In a traditional Japanese home, the garden is a main interior feature while we westerners would frame the garden outside of our homes to view from a window. While planning efforts for developing streets, squares, and parks in western societies are a priority the Japanese prioritize on the interior and adjacent garden. It is the view from inside-out which is most important to the Japanese instead of the elevation of a building taking the public view into account. Rockford treats its public areas with the same care as its interior spaces.
3
The Rockford's downtown has a multitude of green spaces that invoke nature into an interior space. Ying and Yang are introduced by Ashihara to explain the quality of form and space, entrance, and exits, townscape, and landscape. The book concludes with Ashihara’s admiration for small spaces, which contain privacy, tranquility, and imagination. Rockford’s park contains many of these attributes. The image below corresponds with Ashihara overall concept on the exteriors of a city that make it attractive and give meaning to its pupose “When we consider the lines that define the shape of a building and the nature of the exterior walls—the matter of the primary and secondary profiles mentioned earlier—we find that those features play an important role in the nightscape as well. We need to think about how such exteriors should be handled. The boundary line between exterior and interior is extremely permeable, with surfaces that attract and absorb as well as surfaces that repel and shut out, that can flow in and flow out like an amoeba. In short, I believe that the nature of the lines that form figure and ground carry very important meaning in determining the exterior of architecture and of the townscape.”(Ashihara)
CHICAGO vs RIVERSIDE vs ROCKFORD Known as the first planned city in the USA, Riverside Illinois was designed in 1869 by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted to be built as affordable housing for the people of the overpopulated city of Chicago. The streets were designed to follow natural topography and a commuter town from Riverside to Chicago. Now it's an upscale community with a population of 8,881. Riverside is 68% more expensive than Rockford. Housing is the biggest factor. 356% more in the cost of living difference. A salary of $50,000 in Rockford does not camper to the $84,000 that is needed to reside in Riverside. The image of the city talks about “public image� being important for a city's identity to be established. The data is taken to compare the two cities, as well to the city of Chicago. This data tells a lot to not only to a planner but to a resident or future resident. The public image is a big decision factor when one chose a location to live in.
4
URBAN DESIGN ROCKFORD The city of Rockford is experiencing public and private restoration in its downtown. The City is updating its 2020 master plan by implementing ideas of infrastructure, economic development for residents, and business and community projects to ensure the future of Rockford. A subarea strategy was implemented (bottom) to encompass the city's neighborhoods, corridors, and downtown to show their cohesive characteristics. This plan includes a greater level of detail than the master plan but deals with many of the same topics. Subarea plans are targeted for smaller geographies, which provide a way to help the residents and business in the area. Every community is made up of smaller area, each with its own set of unique issues, attributes, opportunities, and challenges that contribute to the city of Rockford. This plan solved the impending traffic of the mall in Rockford for small business and inducing new ideas like the riverwalk and green spaces introduced around the city. This process offers the residents an opportunity to influence the city's comprehensive plan by adapting to the needs of individual small communities around Rockford.
5
CITY OF MANUFACTURING Rockford was once the second largest manufacturer of furniture in the United States. The furniture industry was severely damaged by the great depression and World war II. By the end of the 1960’s the furniture industry was extinct in the city, leaving Rockford in a decline in economy and population. Rockford revolved around machine tools, heavy machinery, automotive, aerospace, fastener and cabinet hardware products. The city's industrial background has produced many important inventions like; Nelson knitting machine,electric brake, dollar bill changer etc. Some defunct Rockford industries include Air Brush Manufacturing Company, Free Sewing Machine Company, Haddorff Piano Company, Hanson Clock Company, Hess & Hopkins Leather Company, Norse Pottery Company, Rockford Brewing Company, Rockford Silver Plate Company, and Rockford Watch Company. The data on the right shows how manufacturing is the highest form of employment in Rockford in small to large factories and the amount of employees it has. With Rockford losing many of its industries it also lost its way as a city. Labeled as the worst city in America, Rockford was a town where things were built, and for nearly a century it formed a big part of the American economy and supported tens of thousands of good-paying blue-collar jobs. By the 1970s most American corporations started to export manufacturing jobs overseas in search of cheaper labor. Rockford’s downfall from the kind of place where working men and women were proud to raise a family to a post-industrial wasteland. The map below shows those companies that closed and abandoned Rockford to find cheap labor elsewhere. Some of these industries have been around for years and it's apparent because most of the industries were close to the river implying that they once used the river to import and export goods through at one point in time.
6
IMAGE OF ROCKFORD ANALYSIS Imageability is, “the quality in a physical object which gives it a high probability of evoking a strong image in any given observer.” Dissecting the parts and structure of a city is important to understand the total scope of what an observer may be finding most legible in an environment. This helps the designer identify what provokes strong images to the observer. There are steps that can be taken to figure out what these certain parts of the city may be. Creating diagrams can be very useful. The designer may begin by taking a general aerial view of the region being studied (Figure 1). Then, an outline of a chosen region can be drawn, and a diagrammatic representation of the focused region’s major visual elements can be concluded (Figure 2). Important city images include the five following elements: paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks. Paths are “channels along which the observer customarily, occasionally, or potentially moves.” In the case study of Rockford, this includes channels such as streets, walkways, railroads, etc. These are represented in yellow in Figure 2. Edges are “the linear elements not used or considered as paths by the observer. “ Edges are denoted in the light blue in Figure 2. A strong example of an edge is exhibited by the river, which lines the border of Rockford, which can also be referred to as the edge of the district.
7
“Medium-to-large sections of the city, conceived of as having two-dimensional extent, which the observer mentally enters ‘inside of’, and which are recognizable as having some common, identifying character,” are districts. Rockford’s city boundaries or edges as a whole can be considered a district itself, inside another district of its county, inside the district of the state of Illinois. so on and so forth. However, at a smaller scale, Rockford itself can be divided into residential, commercial, and industrial. “Points, or the strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter… intensive foci to and from an observer are traveling,” can be referred to as nodes. The airport, colleges, historical sites, major junctions—are all nodes in the city of Rockford. Downtown Rockford may be considered a “core”, or a “concentration node that is the focus and epitome of a district… its influence radiates and of which stand[s] a symbol.” This can be seen how downtown is located in the heart of the city, around the main river system the cuts through town. The river can also be defined as a natural landmark, which is another important element included in the city image. A landmark is, “a type of external point-reference.. typically a well-defined physical object… within the city or at such a distance that for all practical purposes symbolize a constant direction.”
The river can guide the observer through the heart of the town and help navigate throughout the city. Knowing the important elements that create the city image is only the beginning. In order to fully appreciate the full meaning of them, the designer must know what makes the elements stronger or weaker. In the case of path systems, there are certain ways to give them prominence. “Characteristic spatial qualities can strengthen the image of particular paths.” This may include streets that suggest extremes or either width or narrowness. When single paths can be seen particularly well, or given its own exposure, then they can be given importance. When understanding where a path leads, continuity is vital in order for the observer to feel a sense of direction. An “aligned path” is one “whose direction is preferable to some larger system.” This “larger system” may be the interstate system, which connects various cities across the country. Examples of these interstates or main roads that lead through Rockford would be I-39, U.S. Highway 20, Route 70, etc., as seen in Figure 2. “Proximity to special features of the city can also endow a path with increased importance. In this case, the path would be acting secondarily as an edge.” The river can again be an example of more than one element that creates the city image, which can be a path because the street runs right alongside the river, an edge, and a landmark. There are two types of edges: fragmentary edges and overhead edges.
8
A fragmentary edge is “[an edge] in the abstract continuous, but only visualized at discrete points”, while an overhead edge is “[an] elevated edge that [has] directional qualities.” Neither of these examples is shown in the Rockford case. Districts can be divided in multiple ways. They can be sectioned by type of use (commercial, residential, industrial), by neighborhoods, by economic standing, or by “thematic continuities”, which are “the physical characteristics that determine districts which may consist of an endless variety of components—texture, space, form, detail, symbol, building type, use, activity, inhabitants, degree of maintenance, or topography.” Overall, there is a wide range of methods for a division. Observers can be brought together through nodes, and strategically placing them in the city can broaden their importance. Placed injunctions, attention is heightened and perceived with more than normal clarity because decisions must be made. This can create a hub for the people around the area. This can also be done with a concentration of theme, such as a historical area of town. Landmarks, nodes, and paths can go hand-in-hand. Nodes can be junctions of paths, and landmarks placed in these locations become much more memorable to the observer.
CONCLUSION In conclusion, this paper has collected research that will produce a better understanding of Rockford to aid in the design process for assignment 4 through the work of Kevin lynch and Yoshinobu Ashihara. Diagrams that portray the ideals of Lynch and Ashihara were created to better explain Rockford's image. The image below is our site in the Boone county right next to Rockford that resides in Winnebago county. The problems and solutions that we have uncovered in studying Rockford will be implemented in to or own urban design. Understanding a city's pros and cons help the designer, planner, architect be assertive in the development of a cities image and urban design. Rockford is a city that has a potential to restore its image as one of the worst cities in Illinois.
9
WORKCITED
10
1
(IL) profile: population, maps, real estate, averages, homes, statistics, relocation, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, moving, houses, news.*/ - http://www.city-data.com/city/Rockford-Illinois.html
2
Lynch, K. (1960). The image of the city. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
3
Ashihara, Yoshinobu. The Aesthetic Townscape. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 1983.
4
Areavibes. “Rockford, IL Livability.” Living In Rockford, IL, http://www.areavibes.com/rockford-il/livability/.
5
“Historic Preservation.” Historic Preservation, http://www.rockfordil.gov/community-economic-development/construction-development-services/historic-preservation.aspx.