Response to "The Great Good Place"
Because I grew up in suburbs, I can relate to the excerpt from Ray Oldenburg’s The Great Good Place. A sense of community is an unfortunate thing to be without, and I agree that the American culture is lacking in this area. Possibly the only time we experience a real sense of place is during the school years, particularly during college. For a few years we are exposed to the types of casual gathering Oldenburg praises. Students gather on campus between and after classes, in coffee shops and bars, and casually at one another’s apartments. Hardly anyone is isolated under these conditions. Perhaps this is why many people say that their college years were the best of their lives.
The pattern of stressful work hours and periods of isolation is one I’m sure everyone recognizes. I certainly know people who spend lots of money on entertainment systems and frequently redecorate their houses for entertainment. The internet adds another level of this, as we can easily communicate with one another with minimal contact from our own isolated homes. I don’t think suburbs are terrible places to live, at least during childhood and teenage years, but I do agree with Oldenburg’s sentiment about the importance of gathering. A combination of types of places seems to be the best way to encourage people to gather. The recent trend in mixed-use residential areas shows developers are attempting to put this possible solution to use.
What does this mean for Baton Rouge? The downtown area is plagued by lack of use in a city filled with spread-out subdivisions. One mixed-use project, Perkins Rowe, is under construction in another part of town. Downtown Baton Rouge has never been much of a mixed-use area. At the height of its popularity, it was a retail destination. I’d like to design a mixed-use residential building for my capstone project, but the question that arises is this: Should we encourage people to live downtown to bring it back to life if that wasn’t intended in the first place, or should we find another way to draw people there on a regular basis?
The pattern of stressful work hours and periods of isolation is one I’m sure everyone recognizes. I certainly know people who spend lots of money on entertainment systems and frequently redecorate their houses for entertainment. The internet adds another level of this, as we can easily communicate with one another with minimal contact from our own isolated homes. I don’t think suburbs are terrible places to live, at least during childhood and teenage years, but I do agree with Oldenburg’s sentiment about the importance of gathering. A combination of types of places seems to be the best way to encourage people to gather. The recent trend in mixed-use residential areas shows developers are attempting to put this possible solution to use.
What does this mean for Baton Rouge? The downtown area is plagued by lack of use in a city filled with spread-out subdivisions. One mixed-use project, Perkins Rowe, is under construction in another part of town. Downtown Baton Rouge has never been much of a mixed-use area. At the height of its popularity, it was a retail destination. I’d like to design a mixed-use residential building for my capstone project, but the question that arises is this: Should we encourage people to live downtown to bring it back to life if that wasn’t intended in the first place, or should we find another way to draw people there on a regular basis?
This entry was posted by Emily, on
Sunday, September 16, 2007.
You can leave your
response.
leave a response