Quote:
Originally Posted by maccoinnich
This site is five blocks and not that irregularly shaped.
|
Well I didn't mean it was just the
shape that's irregular about the site. It's also the surroundings. It's bordered by railroad tracks on one side, and on another by the pedestrian-unfriendly NE 16th Dr which slopes down steeply to curve underneath the tracks, creating an ugly embankment. On the third side, it borders the Lloyd Center parking structure. So there's only one pedestrian-friendly street fronting this megablock, NE 13th.
The architects have evidently responded by carving up the megablock with new streets (or maybe the city's imposed that as a requirement). And they've created a diagonal pedestrian courtyard/promenade that links the south side of Holladay Park to the neighborhood east of Lloyd Center. Far from being 'cheap' or 'awkward' as others have suggested, I think the design is a very praiseworthy attempt to replace an autocentric megablock with pedestrian-friendly urban fabric and make this neighborhood once more habitable for human beings.