From today's Herald.
Building a creative urban centre important, development expert says
ROGER TAYLOR
Wed. Apr 22 - 5:54 AM
I’M SURE the Halifax regional councillors who were on hand for the Building Our Future luncheon on Tuesday didn’t intend for their exit to be symbolic, but it was.
After listening to a presentation by urban development expert Charles Landry, spectators sat and watched as the councillors got up en masse and prematurely marched out just as the audience was being encouraged to ask questions about the topic: the art of city making.
Mind you, it was an extended luncheon and the councillors probably had to get back to city hall for regular Tuesday meetings. But it looked like the councillors weren’t interested in finding out what it takes to build a creative city.
Besides, they could have waited a couple of minutes longer because most of us passed the councillors on our way out of the venue as they stood and waited for their taxis.
That aside, Landry describes himself as a "critical friend" who will tell decision-makers what they need to know, while at the same time offering inspiring advice that could lead to the city transforming itself for the better.
About 15 years ago, he says, 80 per cent of people surveyed were basing their career choices on a job or a company. Today, a growing number, 64 per cent, are choosing the city where they want to live.
That’s why building a creative and inspiring urban centre has become so important.
Using a series of slides of Halifax and other global centres, Landry showed his audience good and bad examples of urban design.
While there was lots the British-based consultant liked about Halifax, there was also plenty he didn’t approve of.
For example, he doesn’t like the proliferation of buildings in Halifax with reflective glass exteriors. On the other hand, Landry loves Peggys Cove, the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge and parts of Barrington Street, among other spots.
He likes streetscapes that are inviting rather than nondescript buildings that put up barriers to human interaction.
Specifically, he pointed to the Aliant building on Barrington Street, which he says dominates the downtown landscape in a negative way. The cheque-sorting centre on Grafton Street was another example of what he doesn’t like about the city.
Finding a way to attract creative people and employing their ideas, he says, will make Halifax a creative place "for the world" rather than being restricted to simply being a creative city "in the world."
Landry says a modern city generates opportunities for everyone to employ their individual creativity.
There will be mistakes while developing a creative place, he says, but there needs to be allowances, just as long as the mistakes are made in an attempt to make a more livable and invigorating place to live.
Landry, founder of the Comedia consultancy in Europe, has delivered his message to numerous cities in 50 countries. He is best known for three books: The Creative City: A toolkit for Urban Innovators; The Art of City Making; and The Intercultural City, which he co-authored with a colleague.
By viewing big questions with a bit of a twist, cities will be able to find solutions to what he describes on his website (
www.charleslandry.com) as the difficulties of balancing innovation and tradition, wealth creation and social cohesiveness, and local distinctiveness and a global orientation.
Successful cities of the future, he says, will be allowed to change and develop like a living organism, open to new ideas and change.
Whether Halifax politicians appreciate the message Landry delivered Tuesday is still open to question.
(
rtaylor@herald.ca)
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I've always hated that building.
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