The Complexity of Map-Making for Large-Scale Community Redevelopment

A big part of my job responsibility is to make maps to facilitate my boss to make complex decisions on community redevelopment strategies. Each time, when a new "fork" of decision point or a new layer of information appears, my job is to visualize it. What is on my mind is always about how to vividly present all the information in a concise manner, highlighting the main point while also trying to be thought provoking. Call me over-thinking, over-analyzing or unrealistic - Yes, I want my maps to do it all.

My have benefited from the workflow that I have developed overtime.

Step 1: Use ArcMap to analyze the raw data, and do the basic graphics without trying too hard to make it pretty (for example, not make any layer transparent, which not only makes the file size smaller, but also insures the maximized compatibility with the next step through the usage of vector images). Export to PDF.

Step1: Analyze raw data in ArcMap and complete basic graphic composition.

Step 2: Bring the PDF into Adobe Illustrator and focus on improving the graphics, for the purpose of not just making it pretty, but also better presenting data through several dimensions of visualization: colorization, lightweight, transparency, and text (including spell-check), etc. 

Step 2: Go deep in data visualization in graphic programs, such as Adobe Illustrator. 

 I am working on a map right now, which is not a brand new project, but rather it is a project/product builds upon past thoughts with new ideas. It is a challenge, because these are the things that I concern myself with,

1. Purpose: Every map is a presentation. My ultimate goal is to tell a story (to the general audience) and to provoke further thoughts (of my boss, an intelligent decision maker).

2. Data content: For this particular project/product, I am supposed to show the community development pattern in the past (through density analysis in ArcMap Spatial Analyst), the current conditions (through zone identification) and future marketing strategies (through zone visualization and narratives).

3. Data presentation: For this project/product, I am confronted with the challenge of presenting the "changes" as well as the "continuity" between the past and future. In my mind, the way to go is through delicate usage of several dimensions of data presentation, i.e. the cooperation between text, graphics and white space. I would love to have animation as another dimension of visualization, but in the end these maps will need to be printed. So I will have to stick with static approaches.

4. Audience: I perceive a working map serves dual purposes. The first is to serve the decision maker by reflecting his vision and possibly inspire new thoughts, and the second is to always keep the general audience in mind by maintaining the integrity of a good map product.

After I wrote about everything, I realized that all four of my concerns are interrelated, and I came up with this graphic to show what I mean.

The interrelation between purpose, data content and presentation, and audience.

After all, map-making is a task requires logical as well as creative problem solving skills. I need to get back to my task for this project. I hope I can achieve what I hope to do. Wish me luck!

GIS Analysis: Strengths and Limitations in Placemaking

Here are all the buzz words: big data, artificial intelligence, placemaking and real estate development. GIS has the capacity to hold all of these things together: it is a great tool for the planning world, which uses artificial intelligence to analyze big data and powerfully visually present the result on online or offline platforms.

What a minute, I feel like I am talking like machine, not like a authentic human being, who celebrates human intelligence. Yes, GIS is very powerful; however, it is not without its limitations.

In the program of my team, the purpose of placemaking is to create vibrant neighborhoods (mostly single families), to maximize the usage of current community values as well as to create new values in a rural environment. Our team benefits immensely from the extensive GIS analysis we conduct in the office. On my daily basis, I deal with over 34,000 parcels and hundreds of columns of data in the attribute tables. We are thankful for the vision that GIS analysis has helped us to develop. Here are the deeper-level strengths that I, as the GIS Analyst, am amazed by Esri's ArcMap:

 Analyzing standardized data. These are basically geographic and real estate data from the national (e.g. USGS, FEMA), state (e.g. topo coutours), county levels (e.g. parcel and real estate info from the accessory's office) and internal data (e.g. property owners info and project boundaries). I use Spatial Analyst, Network Analyst, Spatial Statistics and so on to fully work with the nature of attribute table (basically spreadsheets) based standardized data, which is quantitative data in most cases.
Communication online and offline. ArcMap has decent ability to create visually pleasing maps, and with the help of Adobe Software, the visualization versatility can be improved a great deal. My colleagues and I enjoy sharing thoughts over a piece of physical map. The online service is a complementary function when we need to brainstorm on the flight: whenever and wherever, as long as there is internet service on the smart phone. I am also well aware that this kind of communication can be carried out with potentially unknown audience through APIs. ArcGIS products definitely do a great job in enabling efficient communication.
Automation. With the help of ModelBuilder and Python, it brings the machine to work at it's full-speed, once the analytic operation has become mature and repetitive.

Image 1: GIS analysis on the housing density at Hot Springs Village

The breakthrough in the relationship between me and ArcGIS comes when I realize what ArcGIS is incapable of doing. The irony is similar to that I start to grow fonder of someone, when I start to see his/her weaknesses. It is through what I see GIS's limitations, I developed a deeper appreciation for it. Here are some of my observations in the application of placemaking:

1. It does not work well with non-standardized data. It overlooks the nuances. For example, in my real estate rating analysis, a piece of property is rated mediocre by the machine and turns out to be very desirable when I paid a visit in person. Why? Because the standardized data records what is parallel with others and underestimate individual qualities.

2. It relies heavily on the second-hand data. It is not data analysts' job emphasis to go out into the real world to conduct survey, to collect original data and to be inspired by the one-off incidences. While I mentioned in the previous point, it does not document feelings, human five senses or the quality of life/place, which are usually qualitative data. To urban planners, this kind of data crucial.


3. It "blocks off" creative design. Not only ArcMap does not collect new data for you, it prevents you from reflecting how you could possibly be blindsided with its variations of analysis. To an urban planner, design is art; it is not computation. It is to work with limited resources and materials using your unlimited and boundless creativity. For example, a piece of land that has severe topographic conditions, may turn into a piece of land worth treasuring.

Image 2 to 4: The conceptual design stemed from GIS analysis to the final completion of the Grove Park Placemaking Project at Hot Springs Village

To bring it together, placemaking is a human-centric urban planning practice. While GIS can help us exclude the obvious "no-no" conditions, it is the human touch and creative thinking that enable us to work with the geographic elements of our communities and work for our fellow residents of humanity.

_______________________________________________________

If you are urban planning professionals, I'd like to invite you to share thoughts on placemaking in rural environment through two open-ended questions:

Transect in rural communities. My observation is that housing density is the highest at are premium locations in our community: golf front, lake front and great mountain views. How to take advantage of the momentum of housing density and create transect around these locations? Or is "transect" is even a proper thing to aspire to in a rural community?
Values and real estate marketing strategy. I suppose people choose to live in a rural community for a different reason from choosing an urban community. Then what are the differences exactly, and how does that impact marketing and promoting a rural community?


Thanks in advance!

Image 5: A bird-eye view of lake and golf frontage real estate at Hot Springs Village

A Quick Comparison between ArcGIS and Space Syntax in Real Estate Analysis

Act Boldly and Think Deeply: a New Book by David Twiggs

Through my work at Hot Springs Village, the largest gated community in North America, it has been my privilege to work with David on many placemaking projects . I believe ideas are just as important as actions and I consider this book project to be a highlight of our working together.

Destination Community: The Evolution of Travel, Tourism, Leisure, and Community

David has over 20 years of community development and management experience. I admire David's tremendous passion for land, and the nature and transformation of human communities in rural settings.  He also nurtures his own original and deep thoughts while he spends time, lots of time, in the field. This book is a documentation of his years of work developing improvements for tourism destination communities.  Although this book was completed during David's time at Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, it is not about specific projects in any one community; but rather, it focuses on the sociological and philosophical side of overall community development: land-use planning, the cultivation of sense of community and running a community as a business. After reading this book, one can readily apply the ideas and concepts presented here in communities anywhere.  Those ideas and concepts include:

• Monoculture vs. Sub-culture,
• Handcraft tourism,
• Sense of belonging at Destination Community,
• In-migration, 
• Startups in communities, and so on.
• If you are interested in real estate development, community management, urban planning, sociology, and value theory, combined with real-world experience, this is a book that you should not miss.

I sincerely hope you enjoy it, and I know you will.

What to Expect When New to Career (Especially with a PhD)

People with a PhD are typically told they have two professional options after graduation: academia (professorship) or industry (business). I have a PhD in Land-use Planning, Management and Design, and I am working in the urban planning and community development "industry". In this environment, the laser-focused research that we are used to doing (in academia) is replaced by collaboration across the spectrum. If you are like me, early in your career (I'm about two years in), it is not unusual, to feel like you are drowning (I'm being dramatic here) from time to time.

Here's what to expect, based on my own experience:

I remember my mentor and academic adviser once told me, after having taught at the university level for 40 years and retired, that:

"a PhD is a certificate that says you are now ready to teach yourself. Learning is a lifelong endeavor but I guess you know that already. The more I learned the more I felt inadequate, so much so that I was even embarrassed. I am glad you like your job." - Dr. Tsai

I'm still back and forth on the path and taking my time to get there. I will be very happy when I hit the coins, just like Super Mario.

Good luck to you, and welcome aboard!

New Urbanism, yes or no?

I have been secretly skeptical about trends, for example "New Urbanism." Yes, New Urbanism has been working out very successfully at many places. But when we invent a new terminology to define a trend, and repeat it over and over, we are likely to do ourselves a disservice. Because we may have created a "box" for confined thinking.

I am big fan of "form follows function." What are the "functions"? I think, for a community, it involves economic feasibility, social prosperity and stability, ecological sustainability, and cultural nurturing and preservation. New Urbanism, yes or no? Maybe. It could be one of the candidates, along with all the other nameless options to make it work.

The following is the best statement that I have read in a long time - it touched my heart, to be honest. Dr. Phillip Tabb mentioned at the end of his paper "Unity at the edge: constellation sustainable urbanism" that a planning official, Kerry Blind, made a comment on Serenbe Community,

"The development plan is not really New Urbanism; it is more organic. We are not saying what a structure looks like, but how it fits into the whole."

Author's notes on Dr. Tabb's paper

New Urbanism or not? As long as it functions beautifully, it does not matter. To quote what my boss, David Twggis,

"Why copy other people's formula? Be creative!"

I completely agree: it's time to let go of the terminology and stereotype thinking; observe, think and be creative.

"Flow" on both sides of brain: drawing and design vs. handling GIS data

I remember the nights I suddenly woke up in a dream about new thoughts on hand-drawing and illustration techniques. For example, it could be about how to use markers to draw the dry, stiff, cold and rough texture of the surface of a mountain rock. I recall my excitement over this sudden burst of realization about something that is subtle, abstract and even personal about graphic art. To be honest, I would even pull out my sketchbook to journal and document my thoughts, even though they may look silly when I become wide awake the next morning.

These days, what is on my mind are numbers; precisely, GIS data. I wake up in the middle of the night to a realization on how I can sort out data with a new tool command, imagining that through several steps back and forth, it will solve my inquiry that has been puzzling me for days (by the way, I do like instant gratification about being able to solve problems quickly. It doen't always happen though).

Graphic solution and data base solution are different.

Graphic solution (2d or 3d design, architecture, free-hand rendering, urban design): is dynamic, romantic, and one can pursue perfection to the end of the world, no matter you are the artist or a viewer. I love everything about the stimulation it brings to me when I work on a graphic solution, or even simply looking at a good piece of art.

Database solution (I can't say about every database, because I don't know. But I can say this about GIS data): is linear, highly fact/data centric, leaving no room for imagination and estimation. It is also purely problem-solving driven, utilizing hundreds of tools from the software tool box. Every bit of information in the attribute table is the very heart of the database. Data consistency and accuracy decides if the data is usable or useless.

Author's graphic journal.

I found great joy in working with both. That is one thing I love about working long hours and digging deep: the creativity builds the complexity of human mind, and it brings "flow" experience. If you are not already familiar with the concept of "flow", it is the experience when we are completely absorbed in an activity voluntarily. This experience makes us feel great joy, satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment, and we become unconscious about how much time has passed and how people are looking at us.

I believe people and responsibilities are sent to my way for a reason, a good one. For me, being used to graphic thinking and suddenly start working with hundreds and thousands of numbers in GIS database is hard, initially. It can be tedious, exhausting and demanding for uninterrupted stream of thoughts, when I am not very good at it. However, as I get over the learning curve, it is when I start to smell the goodness of a different way of thinking.

I value personal growth along with my professional growth and working with others as a team. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to strengthen both sides of my brain as I work on different job responsibilities.

Two sides of the brain. (Source: online)

One good thing about GIS database is that, it all in the end can be presented on a map, which is a form of visual expression. Oh, it all comes to a full circle. 

Building Community: Market-driven or Social-driven (part II)

If we community makers are considered the experts in this field, I'd like to make an analogy about the difference between "market-driven" and "social-driven."  We community makers are the parents and our users are the kids (reason being we are supposedly know more about this field than the laypeople):

Market-driven: how to make the kids happy,
Social-driven: what is good for the kids' future.

If you were a parent (or not a parent), you would know making a child happy and teaching the child what is good for them in the long run are both important. What is considered the most important is to keep the child happy while growing in a healthy manner - this is the definition of sustainable development: meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Market-driven vs. Social-driven = "Pop music" vs. "Classic music". Pop music is time-specific, while classical music is timeless. A market-driven community studies what is current, and then react what people need right now as quickly as possible, therefore these communities tend to be proven profitable in a short period of time. A social-driven consideration weighs more about the underlying factors that will make a community prosper for the longer term. These strategies may not make a community take off financially instantaneously, but is more likely to standout for its long life cycle. Jane Jacobs and Kevin Lynche's works are both from half a century ago and are still considered classic literature today.  This is because their advanced ways of thinking were driven by social concerns.

Market-driven vs. Social-driven = "fish" vs. "to fish". To give a man a fish or teach him how to fish? Similar to the music analogy, by giving fish, we rescue people from immediate starvation, while teach them how to fish is to pass on a life skill. More to it is that, by learning how to fish, we learn to ask "why" and "how", which train critical thinking. By being socially concerned about people, we ask what works for people, and why? And how to make it better? If we are simply market-driven, we can simply repeat the trend, or copy a "formula" that has worked somewhere else. For example, the cities in China are historically built organically over a long period of time, guided by Feng-shui and other rituals and philosophical beliefs as well as human usage.  However, what can be seen in many newly built towns or sections of older cities, the fine-grained urban texture are being destroyed, replaced with automobile oriented and strictly zoned urban lands, which can be largely seen (but slowly abandoned) in the North America. The driving force to this revolutionary change of city image and urban lifestyle is market-driven: the Chinese people want to live a western life-style, which gives them a sense. Maybe this is over simplified, but this is a big part of the story. My personal concern for this example is we need to ask "why" and "how" before we make drastic changes. If we do, we need to think long term what is good for the people and community.

Market-driven vs. Social-driven = "Objective" vs. "Subjective". When an expert is looking at the market, they then to think in terms of numbers, or return on investments. A market study is more like studying other people's story. On the contrary, social driven is for ourselves to relate: if we were to choose a community, how do we want to make the decision for ourselves and our children and grandchildren? The social thinking is actually very personable, culturally concerned and intuitive.

From each point or analogy here, there is not one option, which is better than the other one. I think both market-thinking and socially-thinking are important for us to embrace, if we are truly passionate about making successful communities for people and want to bring sustainable growth to these communities.

Building Community: Market-driven or Social-driven (part I)

I invested a few hours to read through a carefully and professionally executed market study for Hot Springs Village. It was an educational experience for me, in terms of both the great depth and range of consideration for the future of our community. This document is extremely informative and convincing.

On the other hand, while I completely see the value of trusting a well-conducted market study, I also see how important is it to think outside of the box, and detach from the dictation from market trends. By this, I mean, to see building a community from a "social" point of view. To be clear, the fuzzy word here "social", or in a more abstract word "sociology", means to sit back and look at people, embrace culture, and use logic and common sense (even feelings) to figure out how to make communities. In the end a community, for our users, is somewhere we want people to have fond memories of or even call home.

In this article (divided into two parts), I'd like to present some of my humble observation and thoughts on market-driven and social-driven in terms of making communities, no matter it is in rural or urban setting. Here "market-driven" I mean "real-estate value driven", while "social-driven" is "to let community naturally grow and involve over time, and give planning guidance from sociological (including political) point of view."

Maybe it's because I didn't grow up in a Capitalist culture and society, maybe it's because I appreciate living in cities that are thousand years old, maybe it's because of my academic  trained thinking through social and historical lens, I am skeptical about becoming Extreme Market-Driven (EMD) when it comes down to making communities. I illustrated a few differences between extreme market-driven and a healthy dose of social driven.

1. For the extreme market-driven, immediate economic return is the highest priority. When we add a healthy dose of social-driven thinking, we understand there's beauty in letting the community grow and build on itself over time. Let the social groups figure each other out through functions and conflicts, and eventually a unique and complex local culture will form and blossom. When a strong sense of belonging and stability is established, the community is mature and livable. This kind of community holds social and economic value for longer term.

2. When we are extremely market driven, we "implant" a project without taking care of the boarder. You must be familiar with this sight: car dealership scattered along a highway, and they seem lonely and absurd. The reason that these car dealerships have become the eyesore along the highway is because it's appearance is harsh and out of context - there's no transition between the project site and the surroundings, socially or visually. When we only care about the economic return of our own project, we lose sight of the context - the social texture and spatial configuration of the city or region that we are in. A wise architect once advised that if you want to see if an architecture is well-designed, then you need to see how it handles its corners. Likewise, when we want to build a healthy community or urban planning project, we need to consider how it fits in or even socially positively influence the dynamic of the area - we need to carefully design the boarder where the new meets the old. 

3. When we are extremely market-driven, we copy other people's successful formulas, and give up being creative and original. There is no need to say more, when we are so afraid to fail, we hold on extremely tight to what have worked for other people. We forget to learn about own place and people, or to invent what we like and will solely work for own needs. When we learn from successful real estate cases, we need to look further than just the economic return. Instead, we ought to dig deeper to think more critically: is this genuinely a well thought-out project and gives great contribution to the society, or is it a quick fix that will wither after a couple of decades, as oppose to those that will last for generations and hundreds of years.

My Take-away from 2014 Fall National Town Builders Association Conference

From October 24 to 26th 2014, I attended the National Town Builders Association conference for the first time. I was very glad to be there. I was able to meet experts and successful professionals in the town building and development field. I am also grateful for the opportunity to be exposed to the conversations and the ways of thinking that are different from my background in terms of viewing community building. I have been trained to think from the sociological function and aesthetic point of view. The peers at the conference presented their knowledge, insights and experience in real estate investment, political implementation, team building, and so on.

I have been to and presented at several national academic conferences. And now I am thrilled to have the opportunity to listen and learn from the other side of the story: the professionals and practitioners. Academia is a great environment to extract theories from experiments or consider a specialized field in an "ideal" environment. On the flip side, the professionals are the practitioners, who view things realistically and make things happen. They put budget and a strong team together, and conquer obstacles along the way. Each side, academic or professional, has its pros and cons.

Academic Visionary Thinking vs.
Professional Puzzle-solving Thinking
(graphic by author)

It was a great opportunity to learn from this group of experts and professionals. I am also excited to continue working on the project at Hot Springs Village with our own Placemaking team members, and those who will join and assist us in the future.

Group Picture of Fall 2014 National Town Builders Association Conference

What Community Do We Need, "When Everyone is Gone to the Moon"?

Streets full of people, all alone

Roads full of houses, never home

A church full of singing, out of tune

Everyone's gone to the moon

Eyes full of sorrow, never wet

Hands full of money, all in debt

Sun coming out in the middle of June

Everyone's gone to the moon

- from Nina Simone's "Everyone's gone to the Moon", originally by Johnathan King

Two things triggered me to ponder on this topic this couple of days,

1. My husband told me that Apple is going to release the new ipad today. (Whether if it is real, I don't know, and it's irrelevant.)
2. I listened to Nina Simone's "Everyone's gone to the Moon" this morning on my walk, and replayed it over and over. The song was written by Johnathan King in 1965, but it feels so intimately familiar to me 50 years later.

A subway station in Tokyo (by Michelle Li)

Young people at a dinning table (source online, author unknown)

One truth to be admitted: The internet world is here, the internet generation is here, and the internet lifestyle is here. I personally is someone who is resistant of change - I resist the dependency on the internet, and yet, I have several social network memberships. The sociology part of me tells me not to judge. Any kind of social change should be put into perspective and evaluated in a natural, objective and validating manner. Therefore, here I am, thinking about this question:

When people are dedicated in bonding virtually online, what should a traditional community do?

I live this new information network lifestyle: reaching out to my cellphone to check my social networks is one of the first three things I do when I wake up in the morning (text message included), sharing pictures of special "moments" with my social network is the first thing comes to my mind when they occur, texting my husband from another room when I want to be funny or feel too lazy to talk. I don't watch news on TV, I do not hand-write letters, and I do not feel sad about not having blood family member in this country (well, sometimes I do feel sad about that). I do not care if I get to know my neighbors, as long as there is internet connection in my place. Online, I belong to communities; well, on earth, I live in a community, but I know no one.

Social network diagram (source online, author unknown)

I start to think today, how would this social change affect our profession, when people are mostly physically present and mentally absence? What is, and where is our reality any more? How much does it matter, when we try to make our neighborhoods nice, or recreate car-free community, if people are not going to enjoy wholeheartedly? What is our attitude towards this social and lifestyle change, critical, resistant, ignoring or the opposite? From a utilitarian point of view, what is the most efficient way to build our community in the information era?

This should be an interdisciplinary conversation, and it requires us to be open-minded and forward thinking. I propose a few scenarios that perhaps will evoke further thinking along this line, just as they do to myself. I also believe, in this topic, questions are more important than the answers.

Is virtual community a brand new invention in our times?
Is the virtue community networking new and unique to the current times, or historically, people engage in social communities in a similar fashion, but in a different way? I assume the internet technology makes it easier to access this virtual type of bonding, so more people are able to do it.

Is "living in the cloud" constructive or destructive?
You will ask, in what sense? We can think about in any sense. But what concerns the most to our profession as community making is the sociology sense: is people being mentally occupied constructive or destructive to the conventional sense of social bond (face-to-face interaction), sense of family and community, and sense of place? Is there a new born or alternative social bonding mechanism that we community makers should be aware of, to make our products work for the future?

What does "living in the moment" mean anymore?
Where is what people see as the reality, at home, in the neighborhood, online, in the newspaper, hourly updated facebook status? People adopt their social identity through their perception of reality. The rise of social network certainly change people's way of thinking, perceiving, behavior and lifestyle. As people are prone to be drawn by sensual pleasures (pleasure of sense from what we see, hear, smell, eat, etc.) and instant gratification, it takes certain kind of audience for our delicately designed community for it to be appreciated. This certain kind of audience are those who are conscious about the physical environment, face-to-face human interactions, authentic experience, and deeper sense of being that does not come instantly (meaningful relationships, sense of community, and contribution to feel belong, etc.).

Lower level "on the earth", and higher level "on the cloud"?
To the younger generation, who grow up in the electronic technology world, are trained to have, at least part of, their sense of belonging online/remotely/virtually. It brings the question, do people compartmentalize where do they meet their needs on different hierarchical levels, according to Maslow's five hierarchies of human needs? Does a traditional neighborhood serve as a bedroom community where people takes care their basic level of needs, and find their sense of individualism and highly personalized belonging online?

Maslow's five hierarchies of human needs.

How much does geography factors matter any more?

World wide internet and advanced speedy transportation makes globalization possible, which continue to shape our new life in the liquid modern times (according to Zygmunt Bauman, a Polish Sociologist, we have moved away from a 'heavy' and 'solid', hardware-focused modernity to a 'light' and 'liquid', software-based modernity. See his book "Liquid Modernity", 2003). How much does geography matter any more? We would say for certain life tasks it has become irrelevant, but for some activities, we still need to do in person and we need geographic proximate. But the border between the two keeps moving towards the direction of geographic distance matters less and less as people are able to take care of things online more and more. For example, we thought we need to go out to meet someone. Guess what? We date online and get married. In our community, do we still need shopping center, when we can buy everything online? Do we care if we live close to work, since we can work from home? Do we care if our favorite restaurants are in our community, if there's Chef Shuttle? It sounds like Nike's motto "Nothing is Impossible!" However, if we settle down for a second and think, what is good for us may not be what we can do (by stretching our abilities), but what is good to our well-being. Granted, we can finish a challenge of "stay in your apartment alone for one month," but is that truly good for you? I propose that making livable community is not about becoming cutting edge and meet people's unsettled needs and trends, but we should truly care about the well-being of the people. In some sense, we guide people how to live life.

Chef Shuttle in Central Arkansas

Where are you? 
What is your lifestyle today, pro-technology or anti-technology, or not very conscious about it? How do you see yourself will be living 30 years from now? How do you see your children or grandchildren live their life when they are at your age? And how do you hope they live?



The "virtual living" era is here. Which part of it is just a trend and will eventually reverse to "normal", and which part is a true social change that we community makers should be aware of and do some advanced thinking? Let's talk.

Grow yourself with a place

Urban planning or placemaking, is our profession. To some people, it simply means work: go to meetings and conferences, draft documents or drawings at the computer, travel and see places, get paycheck and repeat year after year.

It is a good way to spend your life in your career. However, I propose, if this is something we enjoy to do, we can find a more delicate way to enjoy this experience.

Recently, I was given the privilege to work on a community building book with my supervisor and colleague David Twiggs. My part in the book is to add illustrations to David's narrative, and write about community from a sociology perspective. A lot of thinking, reflecting, learning and relearning was done in this process: in order to come up with diagrams and charts, I needed to thoroughly understand what is written and synchronize with the energy between the lines; in order to see from a social perspective, I needed to refamiliar myself with sociology theories and find the relation with the context of the book. My biggest enjoyment from the experience is that I was inspired to see myself as part of the communities, as oppose to someone that critiques, judges and then walks away. I am aware that this is because of my sociology background, which taught me that the society is a people's world, building community is to work with people, things happen with certain social background and carry certain time-specific social values, and I am not immune from any of these factors. As a result, my compassion grew towards people, the community and my profession. It has been a growing experience for me.

My point is, no matter what your perspective is, try and dig deeper.

Photo by author

The Changed and Unchanged

The time we spend in a car is a lot; the time we have left to read a book is very little - then we learn to by audio-books or potcast channels, so someone would read for us.

We used to spend an hour or two to hand-write a love letter to the person who has our heart. Now, instant text, email - even electronic cards has everything design for us in template. All we need to do, is to hit "send."

We used to cook - cook at home, and cook everything from scratch.

Mom used to make dresses and sweaters for me. 

I've lived for 28 years and I've seen how things change fast these days. It used to be: revolutions were measured by centuries, and social changes were measured in the unit of by decades. Now, revolutions are measured by decades and changed are measured by months, if that! It is confusing. I feel I have more commonality with people that are in there fifties and sixties, than with people who are only 10 years younger than me. 

It IS confusing, if we focus on the changing phenomena - I am sure we would be confused even a century ago, if we choose to focus on "changes" - it's just the changes are much more prevalent and obvious these days. The key here is choose what to focus on - for example, if we focus on negative things in life, of course all we see in life is negativity (by the definition of "focus"), and of course we would feel depressed.

If we focus on changes: how people are different, how people are living differently these days, how people act differently, communicate differently, or even dress differently - we get confused, or may even become frustrated when we try to build communities. Because we are trying to build something that lasts - how does that fit in this "everchanging" era, making it new and cutting edge? Almost impossible.

However, if we change a perspective, or in another word, change focus, this stress will be alleviated. People still want to learn through systematic learning resource (through audio-book or potcast), people still want to connect and express their affection (through text message or email), they still want to enjoy good food (going to restaurants rather than cooking), and they still want to be creative and look nice (although through buying clothes rather than making). There are these fundamental needs of humans that will never change. 

I think, a good community that lasts is one that caters to these fundamental and timeless human needs. If we can add a little modern twist, then it becomes trendy and popular.

From simplicity to simplicity - the knowledge-intake process and
how many people are doing it. (a fun diagram by the author)

A serious worker, a dedicated thinker

A serious worker in any area, in my opinion, should be someone that is passionate about what they do, creative in making progress, diligent in documenting the steps of improvement. All these stem from being a dedicated thinker in their particular area.

A serious worker does not have to have a long face all day long, does not have to work in a serious and depressing manner, nor does he have to be working in a field that is saving the world. A passionate, creative and diligent worker is a serious worker, who can make the most trivial, seemingly unimportant role fun - some people will appreciate seeing a worker like this, and some won't, which is irrelevant to the worker himself.

I happen to have experience in the architecture and urban planning field. I can depict how a passionate, creative and diligent designer looks like:

He thinks about his new project all the time, almost to a obsessive point. He extracts design concepts from what he sees and feels, a tree branch, a breeze, a peaceful morning, a science documentary, the way people talk on the street - anything that enters his eyes and mind, is inspiring to him. He carries a pen and sketchbook wherever he goes, or even a piece of napkin will do the job, when an idea shows up in his head at any point of time. He's patient, open-minded, making mistakes, and then he flips a page and draw something new. That is the image of a serious designer, a dedicated thinker.

I have the honor and privilege to read David Twiggs's manuscript on tourism community development. Twiggs did not strike me as a writer, in a professional sense. As the Chief Operating Officer of America's biggest gated community, he is very diligent in his own way of documenting his thoughts, progress and eagerness to contribute the professional community. Some of his articles may be shorter than others, some do not seem quite complete in a typical sense (as he says, he writes when he wakes up in the middle of the night, and stops when the thought is gone) - I can see that his thoughts, throughout over tens of essay-like articles, are cohesive and evolving over time, filled with the wisdom from experience. Although certain amount of editing and polishing is needed for publication, it is precious to read Twiggs' notes through his writing, which well presents him as a serious worker and dedicated thinker.

Two volumes of Twiggs' manuscript on community development
(photo by author)

Many people are intimidated by writing. I was that person, especially to write in a foreign language. But writing is just one method to document one's progress and thoughts, and there are so many other ways to achieve the same goal. Some people feel weird about being called a thinker; but if they can find something that they truly enjoy doing, they will be naturally thinking about it all the time and trying to do better. It doesn't matter how we label a worker, but I think it would be helpful to explore the potential in oneself and cultivate an encouraging atmosphere at a workplace in order to support creativity and documentation for the worker's own value and self-realization.

Many people think being a good worker is to get all tangled up with meetings, phone calls, paperwork and travelings - just to stay busy. In my opinion, that is a sad perception, and is short-sighted. A true good worker is someone who feels fulfilled from the inside, when he makes time to pause, to learn, to think, and to grow.

Why use Space Syntax on America's Biggest Gated Community?

Hot Springs Village in Arkansas, with 26,000 acre of land (encompassing 9 golf courses and 12 lakes), is the largest gated community in the US. David Twiggs, the current Chief Operating Officer of Hot Springs Village, is a talent in community making, who has over 20-yrs of planning practicing experience and great intuition about land (the physical land and nature, as well as the feel of space). I am fortunate enough to work with the combination of the two: a community that is significant and needs to be saved, and a dedicated and experienced placemaker. Me? I am a newbie in this area. Twiggs always refer me as the "academic one" - I think maybe that is the best that I can offer at this point - 20 years in school and with a fresh PhD. Sometimes I feel uncomfortable letting people know I have a PhD, because I don't feel I know enough to deserve such a "PhD", which people tend to expect the person to be an expert in something. Anyways, this is an issue I have to work through on my own and make peace with it.

As much as I kind of want to hide my PhD, I had a thought today that was indeed inspired by an experience that I had when I was a PhD student: the research of Space Syntax. Twiggs, a practitioner as he is, who also has an inquiring mind and hope to develop a body of theory of community values and development, asked me a few times when we were talking about our new terminology value gravity "whether there is a way to quantify value gravity, community value and ultra local value (the terminologies that we are developing)?" Space Syntax may help us find a solution.

Space Syntax is a theory, studying the spatial configuration of a built environment, i.e. the layout of a space (global level) and the connectivity of the units of the space (local and global level). It is currently most applied in the interior space (floor plan) of architecture and the street connection (even with the consideration of 3d topo) in an urban environment. It, subsequently, analyzes and predicts human behavior pattern in the spatial configuration in a quantified manner. Examples are as such, 1). quantifying and describing how easily navigable any space is, useful for the design of museums, airports, hospitals, and other settings where wayfinding is a significant issue; 2). predicting the correlation between spatial layouts and social effects such as crime, traffic flow, and real estate sales per unit area. During my years as a PhD student at Texas Tech University, I took research class in this area and published a peer reviewed paper with Dr. Saif Haq, called Space Syntax in Healthcare Facilities Research: A Review (2012).

Space Syntax used in urban street environment
(Source: online)

Space Syntax used in architecture layout
(Source: online)

Space Syntax utilizes several key variables to measure the properties of the configuration of a space, and the most important ones are: connectivity, step depth, depth distance and integration. These terminologies, although sounds very technical, can be understood by people who have dealt with space but without Space Syntax background, through a couple of hours explanation and with the help of illustration. Ultimately, Space Syntax is a great tool to bridge the three aspects in architecture and urban planning:

DESIGN (architects and urban planners) - a lot of times, architects or urban planners are (self-)considered "artists". With the first-hand experience, I understand the awkwardness of this position: you feel the general public don't have the artistic taste to understand your design work, but at the same time, you are afraid people to find out you know how things work in real life (human behavior, engineering, market value, etc). Designer is a flashy mask in many cases.

PRACTICE (developer, builder, placemakers) - real world is exciting: you see things happening and you talk about big dollars. But practitioners, even the most experienced ones, sometimes have to admit that their weakness on the design side and also their lack of proof to support their intuition about a project. Market study is readily available, if a community is willing to pay high dollars. What about social study, i.e. how will people use the space when it's built? The practitioners hardly have the time to wait around for 10 or 20 years to see if a project works out as great as they hope to. 

RESEARCH - research without real play ground, as serving the real world project, is lifeless. Ultimately and ideally, academic and lab research should be aiming towards improving the quality of life of the mankind. As much as practitioners feel weak in obtaining solid number support, researchers have weaknesses too: the lack of time to observe how real life works (oftentimes think in a laboratory setting) and have a hard time locating funding. There seems to be a mutual intimation between the practitioners and academic researchers.

The software, Depthmap,  made this bridging process possible. It is the analytically software using the theory of Space Syntax. For example, the following diagram is a classic case. The top image is a google map of the city of London, and the bottom image is an image produced by Depthmap based on the street layout. In this image, the red and yellow lines indicate that the streets that are the easiest to access from the rest of the city. Historically, these areas and along the River Thames are the most civic places, where most public and tourism activities take place. The blue areas indicate the spatially less accessible streets, i.e. more private and remote from the heart of the city. These areas tend to be residential. This can also be advanced to indicate the real estate value of different area of the city, location selection of an infrastructure and crime distribution analysis.

Google map of London

Space Syntax analysis of London with Depthmap
(Source: online)

Space Syntax and Depthmap should be of great value to the land-development related projects in Hot Springs Village for a few reasons:

1. The spatial layout of Hot Springs Village is complicated: covers a vast area of land and all streets are wandering and dynamic. So far, it is not known if any other software can conduct analysis of global configuration as Depthmap does.

2. Hot Springs Village, as a gated community, has clear boundary, therefore has a clear target area for analysis. Within HSV, there are also several development regions, each with their own boundary. Depthmap requires identified boundary when performing. 

3. Hot Springs Village is experiencing a transitional period, in terms of development and adding more amenities. Space Syntax can help the remasterplanning of the community during this period.

The spatial layout and existing development of Hot Springs Village
(Source: HSV Placemaking Team)

Space Syntax and Depthmap can be used to find solutions for HSV's masterplan and future development in such areas,

1. Analyzing the logic main arteries in HSV, such as DeSoto Blvd, Ponce De Leon, Balboa Rd., Bacelona Rd., Bealeric Rd. 

2. Find stratigic spots for HSV placemaking and development projects, i.e. where to add new amenities so people will be likely to use them the most.

3. Find out the corelation between the street layout and real estate values in HSV, and how this aspect complement other aspects in deciding the property values.

4. Help to define community development terminologies, such as, community value, ultra-local value and value gravity, at a local and global value.

5. Help to explore a universal usage of Space Syntax in other communities like HSV. 

In the end, I think research (academic or nonacademic) and practice can work together and should work together. It is encouraging and hopeful to see how my research background could complement the team and provide proof for Twiggs on his keen intuition generated from community building experience. Mixing Space Syntax and Hot Springs Village is worthwhile exploring.

The work environment of Depthmap software
(Souce: online)

Fear of the familarity

In the past year,  I have been moving around quite a bit. Today, once again, I am at a new place.

Driving on the streets of North Little Rock, Arkansas,  I could feel my heart was sinking - I was quickly bored or even terrified, by the familiarity of street view: Office Depot, McDonald's, Best Buy, Dillard's, Walmart, you name it. I was also terrified by the big parking lots, the streets, and even the "neat" office buildings of law firms, banks, dentists, which I call cold and inpersonable. I feel like a helpless child, getting lost in the familiarity. 

I know I do have a fear of unfamiliarity and uncertainty. Where is this fear of familiarity coming from?

The franchised big box stores created standard images for American cities - their wide spreading across the states, supposedly, should help people when relocate to a new place. You always know what you can get in an Target store, no matter you are in Texas or Arkansas or New York City. The well recognized logo of Chili's make you associate the smell of its food with the sight of the logo, no matter you are in your car driving down a city street or in an airport trying to find your terminal gate in an airport. Predictability creates familiarity. I was told familiarity brings peace, comfort and joy. However, what I am experiencing now are the exact opposite, as driving first time on the streets of North Little Rock - anxiety, discomfort and sadness. 

I grew up in cities. I lived and worked in cities - some of the biggest cities in China. In my memory, cities are burst with the energy of life: street foods, people walking around, little stores, big stores, bicycles, buses, motorcycle, cars - you never know what the weird logo on the next sign is all about. The sidewalk was where people social: men and women bringing out chairs and hangout, kids chasing around and playing hike-and-seek - people felt safe, because they know whatever they do, cars don't get to not like it. It was pedestrian dominated city life. Maybe it has changed, since I have not lived in China for almost 5 years. Regardless, for me, the energy of life in the city streets is unforgettable.

The big box franchised stores, as bringing familiarity, they kill the energy of life. The predictability kills my very human needs for exploring a new place- because I know what is going on behind the big logos. The big parking lots of these stores make lifeless streets - it does not matter how fancy the inside of the store is. The standardized stores suffocates the needs of creativity, both for the residents and the city itself. They also kill the diversity of culture - people use the same vocabulary "honey, could you pick up a gallon of milk in Walmart on your way home?", people say things like this in English in the US, Spanish in Mexico and Mandarin in China, wherever Walmart takes over. As cities are filled with these big box franchised stores, they become generic, unlikable, boring - even more, it is the biggest killer to the "energy of life" in the streets: it is unsafe for people to walk or bike - only those who can not afford a car walk or bike. From a sociology point of view, the reduced chance of social interaction among people diminishes the solidarity of a society, and therefore leads to people feeling less of the sense of belonging and even instability of a community. 

Maybe it is because I am in the profession of urban planning, I am more aware and sensitive towards the environment I am in. For the general people, they may feel a lack of excitement and attraction when they wander around a faceless city. In my opinion, a successful placemaking project is one that promotes the energy of life and supports human needs - exploration, creativity, social interaction, safety, culture diversity and mixture. The big box stores are very counterproductive in this sense.

How long does it take a person to get to know a new place? I do not like instant familiarity - I want to take my time to wander down that street. 

Author's sketch in Barns and Noble,
North Little Rock, AR

Author doing sketch in Barns and Noble,
North Little Rock, AR

Placemaking: the Soul Searching of a Place

What if we treat a place like a person?

We, with decent self-esteem ourselves, will probably start to become more careful about what to put and not put in a public space - because we do not want to hurt a person; likewise, we don't want to ruin a place.

We placemakers, should be professional "place nurturers": we respect her personality, appreciate her beauty, tolerate her quirks, and encourage her sustainable growth. We encourage her to develop unique characters and strengths at a soul searching level, rather than merely following the trend and market.

Nurturing place is much broader than simply designing the physical space/environment. There is another utmost important element to placemaking - people. Yes, we placemakers should be as passionate about people as we are about place. We care about who is going to use the place, who is going to ruin the place, and who can help a place to grow its integrity and beauty. And most importantly, how can a place and its people growth at the same time?

What we should value in making a place?

Simplicity: "Keep it simple" is hard. But there's so much wisdom to simplicity - the key is the explore the fundamental value of a place, and stick to it. It is easy to get confused or lost along the way. We need to be aware of what we are doing on every step of placemaking.

Authenticity: An authentic and genuine person is attractive. Authenticity of a place is about "form follows function", it is about exploring and respecting the original beauty of a place, and it is about staying true to the local while learning from others. We want to avoid being generic, superficial, and lack of self-respect.

Creativity: Placemaking is an art. It is about aesthetics, open-mindedness, and flexibility. It requires us to have a wide range of knowledge, from planning, sociology, human behavior, to engineering, marketing and spirituality. On top of everything, a successful placemaker plays with these areas of knowledge he has, creating an authentic story for the place and its people, without looking trying too hard. A good placemaker is a master. 

Health: A place has its health condition and life cycle, just like us human. The health includes the physical sustainability and energy balance. For a deteriorating neighborhood, its physical condition is going downhill as much as its negative (or yin energy in Chinese Fengshui philosophy) is increasing. We placemakers can restore the health condition of a place by remove the hazard, renew the physical structures and land-use, and adjust the human activities in the area. 

Functionality: This is the responsibility of a place. If it is a residential community, how can we let it serve its people to the best and in a healthy way. If it is a natural reserve, then it's function is to help regulate the local ecologic and environmental system; then we need to limit human activity within the area. A place is not always about letting people to occupy, use and exploit it; but rather, it is about growing a holistic living environment. Place and people have different roles.

Placemaking is a trend, but it is a traditional profession; or it is not so much a profession, it is what people have been doing for thousands of years. Placemaking is such a straightforward term, yet many people do not understand it, because we are so used to fancy, intimidating and confusing profession titles. It is time for us to keep it simple and return to the original. 

"We are placemakers. We create nice, pretty, and enjoyable places." We can tell people this when they ask what is "placemaking".

"To be a good placemaker, we need to do soul searching of the place that we are working on." We need to remind ourselves of this as we proceed in our placemaking projects.

The following pictures show the birth of the Grove Park at Hot Springs Village as the first Placemaking Project:

Site walk in mid Feburary, 2014.
(Photo by author.)

Preliminary concept drawing, late Feburary 2014.
(Photo by author.)

Construction, March 2014.
(Photo by author.)

Opening date of Grove Park, May 8, 2014.
(Photo by author.)

Author at Grove Park sign on the opening day.
(photo by Stephanie Heffer.)

"Respect for the unplanned"

It reminds me of a concept that I used to teach my students in my freehand drawing and architectural studios at Texas Tech: Positive and Negative space. Here, the positive and negative does not take on biased attitude - they are simply a pair of complements, in order to define each other through their drastic contrast. Some examples of complementary pair in this manner that I can think of are:

1. In still-life drawing, the bright side versus dark side of an object: the side that the light casts on versus the side that is in shadow;

Light vs. dark on still-life
(author's diagram)

2. In typography: black text (positive) on white paper (negative);

black text on white paper
(author's diagram)

3. In figure-field of urban study: solid black for buildings and blank of all the spaces that's outside of building in an urban area;

buildings along the streets (author's diagram)

4. In architecture design: main function spaces as voids (negative) while the servant spaces as solid (positive);

main function rooms and service rooms of a building
(author's diagram)

5. In Chinese Yin-yang philosophy, the Taichi Symbol consists of two interlocked parts: the solid black for Yin and white for Yang;

Chinese yin-yang symbol
(author's diagram)

6. Of course, man and woman, day and night, etc.

It is simply a matter of complementing each other, and there is no right or wrong, good or bad.

This short line reminds me that as my main job duty is to plan, it is also important for me to respect and appreciate the unplanned. The unplanned defines and complements the planned. Thus, the unplanned could be equally valuable as the planned. Just like the "accidental playground" in Brooklyn, which is a vacant waterfront surrounded by heavily developed districts in New York City, became a heaven for kids (Campo, 2013).

The unplanned is not the underplanned.  The underplanned is a space that is not wisely used (in today's language, I assume you would say "unsustainable") and is adversary to human needs. The underplanned is what we do not wish to see or let happen. However, the unplanned, as oppose to the planned, inspires me to see them from a negative versus positive space point of view - let the unplanned boarder the planned, and let the underplanned nowhere to be found.

The nature, the woods, for instance, is an example of the unplanned. We have plenty of opportunities to deal with the nature in Hot Springs Village, or in Arkansas in general. So from this point on, I need to pay attention to how our planning projects are physically defined by the unplanned. As I continue to plan, I need to give credit to the unplanned.

negative vs. positive space
(author's diagram)

Campo, D. (2013). The Accidental Playground: Brooklyn Waterfront Narrative of the Undesigned and Unplanned. Fordham University Press