THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 8, 1994 TAG: 9412080489
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
Andres Duany, the Miami architect in town to redesign upper East Ocean View, charmed a capacity crowd Wednesday night by speaking for almost two hours on what could have been a dry subject - the principles of town planning.
He spoke about street widths. He spoke about curb radiuses. He spoke about alleys and outbuildings, the proper mix and positioning of cars, homes and businesses.
But he held the audience's interest at the senior center in Ocean View - a crowd of civic leaguers and city officials - by being witty and direct and by weaving his remarks into a theme everyone there cared about: How to build and create a community.
He held out this plum as the reward for giving up a lifestyle most Americans have chosen - living in the suburbs - and returning to the traditional town or neighborhood.
``When you give up the four-car garage, the huge yard, the homeowners association, what do you get in return?'' Duany asked. ``An authentic community.''
But the architect did not directly address what concerned many people there: that the new community that he had come to design would be created by sweeping away an existing one.
The Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority is buying property and homes in a 90-acre section of East Ocean View, from 23rd Bay Street through 30th Bay. The homes and streets there are set to be razed; the occupants must move elsewhere. Some residents are resisting.
After the speech, Grace Haworth, who has lived for 40 years in East Ocean View but not in the section to be demolished, said Duany's speech brought her back to her beloved childhood in Dover, Del. But she still opposed the clearance of the upper Bay streets.
``A neighborhood is a wonderful thing to have,'' Haworth said. ``But we can't have it at the cost of other people's rights. You can't do that.''
Duany said he was aware of differing opinions. But he said the time for questions would be Friday - when the design sessions, which are open to the public, are set to begin.
In his lecture, Duany held up the traditional town, with houses and businesses close to walkable streets, as the solution to practically every American ill. In such a place, he said, neighbors see each other in the street, walk to stores and look out for one another's children.
Duany showed slides of some of the most cherished places in the country and particularly the East Coast: Georgetown in Washington; Annapolis, Md.; Alexandria; and Princeton, N.J.
City planners should work to create places like these, Duany said, not homes on cul-de-sacs where the nearest stores are at a shopping center on the highway. Most cities mandate this type of development now, he said.
Duany vilified the suburbs. Suburban development, Duany said, has isolated families from neighbors, restricted the independence of children, segregated families by income and forced everyone to rely on the personal automobile.
If people present were offended by such a message, they did not show it. Duany won laughter and applause several times - and one of his strongest responses, when he showed a slide of the Pembroke intersection in Virginia Beach.
Duany regularly uses the slide as an example of the type of city he opposes.
In an interview in 1991, Duany called Virginia Beach ``a laboratory of failure for the East Coast.''
``The extraordinary thing is that they are proud of this,'' Duany said Wednesday as he showed a slide of the intersection of Independence and Virginia Beach Boulevard. ``This is not designed for humans. It is a landscape that was designed only for automobiles.''
Duany ended by asking the audience to help him restore the human habitat the same way environmentalists had focused on the natural habitat. ``If you look at humans today, they are as in as sorry shape as the turtles and the fish,'' Duany said. ``The neighborhood is the fundamental human habitat.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MOTOYA NAKAMURA/
Andres Duany - the architect holding open hearings on the area's
redesign - held the audience's attention for almost two hours
Wednesday night. How to build and create community? Do it by
building a traditional community - not a suburban one, he said.
KEYWORDS: EAST OCEAN VIEW REDEVELOPMENT by CNB