Contract Magazine - July 2020 - 27

PHOTOGRAPHY: BERND FERSTERRA (STREETLIFE); JON ENDOW (MACTAC)

Urban Design
Chazandra Kern
Program Manager
LA-Más
Los Angeles

Jason Newsome, ASLA, ULI
Urban Designer, Landscape Architect
Civitas
Denver

"Civitas always advocates and pushes for a more balanced design and layout of
the public realm in the cities where we work. Our streets are public space and need
to be designed to reflect the needs for equitable access, health, and safety in
urban environments. Car-centric streets that dominate the urban environment
can be redesigned with more space for trees, pedestrians, bicycles, scooters,
outdoor dining, and retail. This allows for more active transportation options, more
active street-level commerce, and more safety with the reduction or elimination
of vehicle traffic. In many ways the public safety measures put in place to slow
the spread of COVID-19 have only exposed the urgency of making these types
of improvements that prioritize space for people and not personal vehicles. Cities
across the world have implemented temporary measures to allow more outdoor
dining and have closed down streets to vehicles to open up more space for people
to safely and simply be outside. Making these changes permanent could have
a dramatic impact on bettering the physical and mental health of our cities."

Classic
mmcite: Blocq Bench
"The Blocq bench by mmcite is a substantial
bench with generous proportions. You can vary
the size, layout, and configuration of the bench
to help create, delineate, and divide space with
its clean lines and substantiality. Mmcite has also
designed USB access and LED backlighting that
integrates seamlessly into the design."
mmcite.com

New need
Streetlife: Surf Isles
"Landmark, seat, meeting spot, lounger, or unintended play feature all describe the Surf Isles
from Streetlife. There needs to be more furniture
in the public realm that lets you comfortably lay
back and stare up at the sky."
streetlife.nl

"In the past we've partnered with city officials, local council offices, and community
groups to support projects in the public right-of-way. Our goal has been to make
public space accessible, inviting, and supportive of the lives of lower-income and
working-class Angelenos. Up until this point, our approach has been to be deeply
invested in listening and learning from residents who face numerous barriers
in having ownership over their sidewalks, storefronts, and streetscape. In the face
of so much change in the world and for our organization, we remain committed
to supporting communities being able to shape the future of their own neighborhoods. Building off of that premise, we are rethinking urban design and our
approach-especially when working in neighborhoods outside of our immediate
community of Elysian Valley. Moving forward, we see design as an incredible agent
for synthesizing values, discussions, and goals, but we don't see it as the point
of our activities. We've shifted into a phase of work where the community (and
not public agencies or organizations) identifies its needs, and we work to support
and fill out scalable solutions based on that call to action. The nuance of when
to do what and for whom has become crystalline for us during this period
of COVID-19."

Classic

New need

Mactac: Streetrap Stickers
"For temporary public realm projects, like Go
Ave 26, we look for products that are affordable,
removable, and adaptable. Mactac produces a
sidewalk sticker product that can be adhered
to concrete. We've used this product to provide
wayfinding on sidewalks, communicating where
transit stations are for pedestrians. We design
the graphic and then collaborate with a local
print shop, Printefex, who prints and cuts the
patterns for us."
mactac.com

contract

Grainger: Thermoplastic Ground Paint
"Since we are commonly working with sidewalks,
streets, and rights-of-way that are highly trafficked and get a lot of wear and tear, we have
been considering alternative applications of
thermoplastic ground paint. It's not something
you can buy off the shelf, and it's a bit labor intensive, but it's incredibly durable and a product
most cities use to denote striping and bike lanes."
grainger.com
http://www.streetlife.nl http://www.mmcite.com http://www.grainger.com http://www.mactac.com
Contract Magazine - July 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Contract Magazine - July 2020
