AIA Architecture
May 1998
by Alex Marshal
When the faithful, the curious, and the skeptical gathered in Orlando, the debate over Celebration and the design philosophies of New Urbanism and Neotraditionalism twisted and turned for four days. Although there were dozens of speakers, the show stopper for many was the debate Friday night between Andres Duany, FAIA, New Urbanist leader and advocate, and Alex Krieger, FAIA, director of the Urban Design Program at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Held in the Disney Cinema on the grounds of the Disney Institute, Duany and Krieger sat on stage in straight-backed chairs and traded comments and retorts. John Kaliski, AIA, of Santa Monica, Calif., moderated. He had a tough job controlling his eager participants.
The views of the two, and their differences, were clear, though. Krieger championed what might be called Old Urbanism: the health and prosperity of thousands of existing neighborhoods and downtowns, many of which are struggling to retain jobs, residents, and services. Duany championed reinventing the suburbs through New Urbanism. What was the conflict? Simply put, Krieger said encouraging more suburban growth sucked people and resources from the center city. Duany said the suburban expansion was inevitable, and it was better to do it well than to waste energy trying to slow it down. Deciding who was right was left to the audience. More controversial were Duany’s remarks on public housing, as he and other New Urbanists are actively involved in inner-city work.
On February 21, the committees pursued their separate agendas: The Committee on Design headed to Tampa, where they checked out the campus of Florida Southern University, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright; the Regional/Urban Design Committee saw the 19th-century railroad resort Winter Garden; and the Housing PIA toured a number of Orlando’s infill housing projects.
On February 22, all attendees gathered for a final discussion on Celebration and New Urbanism. The questions emerging were: How would it age? Would the rigid design controls keep the project from evolving over time? Would it remain an isolated subdivision? Were its residents connected to or isolated from the metro area of Orlando? Was it a town or a subdevelopment? Writers Todd Bressi, Elizabeth Dunlop, and Nora Greer raised these and other questions and observations. No clear answers emerged, but all agreed the project was worthy of attention.
Alex Marshall is Norfolk (Va.)-based journalist and author of a forthcoming book on the contemporary city.
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