More links of interest, this time in Melbourne.

Walking Melbourne has a lot of interesting information on buildings in Melbourne. Of particular interest given the film from today's lecture is the page on Melbourne's most regrettable loss. If you scroll down a bit there are some articles on the Queen Victoria Hospital site.

Also of note, the first ever Melway from 1966. Well worth having a look.

Places 30th July, 2003 08:43:42   [#] [0 comments] 

The website having been an eternity in the creation, there are a few links that are now a bit old but still worth looking at.

For the Urban Designers: an interesting post by Peter Merholz on the natural creation of paths at UC Berkeley. RMIT is rather short on grassed areas, but it is interesting to contrast Berkeley with Melbourne Uni. It has a concrete 'lawn' which obviously isn't trampled, and the South Lawn which is enclosed on three sides. The eastern edge is blocked by a rather annoying water feature which prevents you from cutting across the lawn to the library/commerce building. It also reduced the utility of the lawn because you have to walk 50-60m to get to the far side. On the other hand, it looks pretty because the grass hasn't been trampled.

Two contrasting American cities. Metropolis had an article on perceptions of race in Detroit. Detroit is probably most interesting because of the way it has declined, best expressed in this great site on its ruins. A world away, the effect of Portland's urban growth boundary (amongst other things) is described in pictures by Michael Totten (scroll to the bottom).

A much older article in Metropolis on how to create a Pedestrian City by looking at Copenhagen. Interestingly, he cites Melbourne as a "people-friendly" city. To some extent this is true - Southbank, Bourke St. Mall, the arcades, and to some extent Swanston St. On the other hand, these places seem like little islands of civility in an otherwise flaming mess. Given the article advocates closing roads to traffic bit by bit, I'd be interested in hearing what roads people would like to close in Melbourne, if any, and why?

Finally, on John Quiggin's site, an interesting history of canals and railways in Britain by one of his readers. In particular, and related to sustainability, note how it took resource shortages before alternative transport types could be considered more efficient.

General 30th July, 2003 08:30:47   [#] [1 comment] 

Hi - this might be worth checking out....

Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning
The University of Melbourne

The Dean's Lecture Series 2003

Lyndsay Neilson
Secretary, Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria

Melbourne 2030: Delivering Sustainable Growth
Tuesday 5 August
6.15pm
Sisalkraft Theatre
Ground floor, Architecture and Planning building
This is a FREE event

Melbourne is at a developmental crossroads.

Strong urban growth has created opportunities - a healthy building sector,
high levels of investment, new jobs.

But it has also highlighted pressures - runaway development threatening
environmental assets, satellite suburbs with poor equity of access,
unsustainable increases in natural resource use.

A 'business as usual' approach to development won't balance the social,
environmental and economic factors that have kept Melbourne one of the
world's most liveable cities.

With its population expected to rise by at least one million over the next
30 years, Melbourne's growth needs to become more sustainable if it is to
keep that distinction.

Professor Neilson will profile the opportunities and pressures facing
Victoria's capital city, and discuss how the State Government's roadmap,
Melbourne 2030, is working to deliver more sustainable growth.

Professor Lyndsay Neilson is Secretary of the Department of Sustainability
and Environment in Victoria, Australia, the lead agency for Statewide
promotion and management of sustainability in the natural and built
environments. He has extensive experience in Australia and internationally
in urban research, planning and management consultancy, public policy
development and public administration.

During 2000 - 2002 Professor Neilson was the Secretary of the Department of
Infrastructure, Victoria. He was previously Director of the Centre for
Developing Cities at the University of Canberra, where he established the
Centre's Urban Management Program. Professor Neilson was Deputy Secretary
of the Australian Department of Housing and Regional Development, and
Chief Executive of the National Capital Planning Authority. He was
responsible for the Australian Government's 'Better Cities' program.

Between 1979 and 1989 he was also Director of Neilson Associates Pty
Limited, a planning, urban management and public policy consultancy.

Dean Mundey
External Relations Officer
Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning
The University of Melbourne
Vic 3010
Australia

Tel: +61 3 8344 3740
Fax: +61 3 8344 5532
Email: dmundey@unimelb.edu.au

Planning 30th July, 2003 07:29:17   [#] [3 comments] 

This website has been designed for use by the first-year Planning students at RMIT. The intention is to combine our resources by sharing any books, articles, comments or just thoughts that relate to the course, or to urban planning and design in general.

Not all parts of it are accessible to the wider world; there are assorted functions to create groups for you and your friends, talk about RMIT specific subjects, and to manage your assignments. To use these, and to post messages you need a login; to obtain one, email me.

For those of you on the outside: welcome as well. David of City Comforts has jumped the gun a bit by commenting on my earlier test post, but thankyou. If this blog creates half as much useful content as his own then it will be very fine indeed.

enjoy.

General 27th July, 2003 21:49:30   [#] [12 comments]