redevelopment plan presented for historic port-au-prince _ better! cities & towns online
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Palace area rendering
Courtesy of The Prince's
Foundation and Duany Plater-
Zyberk & Company
Illustrative plan
For Port-au-Prince. Courtesy of
The Prince's Foundation and
Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company
'Urban village' with
corner park
For Port-au-Prince. Courtesy of
The Prince's Foundation and
Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company
Redevelopment plan presented for historic Port-au-Princene w urba n ne ws d evel op me nt d isaste r re li ef i nf i l l i nterna ti on al p la nn in g urba n de si gn
Author: Robert Steuteville
New Urban Network
A plan was unveiled January 25 to reconstruct the historic city center of
Port-au-Prince with a better urban environment than existed prior to the
devastating January 2010 earthquake. The Haitian government
commissioned The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment of
London, England, and Miami-based Duany Plater-Zyberk (DPZ) to develop
the plan.
The plan envisions a rebuilt government center around the presidential
palace with civic/administrative buildings, museums, concert halls, schools
and green spaces. A form-based code aims to ensure that new buildings are
designed with pedestrian-friendly frontages. The historic street grid is
retained with new small parks on street corners that “come together to form
complete squares of tremendous elegance,” explains planner and architect
Andres Duany.
A rebuilt waterfront would include mangrove trees to protect against storms.
The plan calls for building housing on top of rubble. The team calculated
that if the rubble from the demolished buildings is used as a base for new
buildings it would raise them up 80 centimeters — more than two and a half
feet — enough to protect against a 100-year flood, Duany says. The water is
then channeled into streets and would not affect the houses or the parking.
The planners focused on how middle-class and wealthy residents can be
lured back into the urban environment — which is the only way that a proper
rebuilding can be “amortized,” Duany explains.
“The people who have to rebuild require three things — security, parking,
and a predictable environment,” he says. Toward those goals, the plan
proposes a sub-governmental level of management at the scale of the urban
block. Each residential block, dubbed by the team an “urban village,” would
be designed to provide its own utilities and parking at the center of the block.
A structure at the block center would provide dependable electricity, water,
and sewer, Duany explains, surrounded by a common parking area
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Urban village blocks
For Port-au-Prince. Courtesy of
The Prince's Foundation and
Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company
New retail areas
For Port-au-Prince. Courtesy of
The Prince's Foundation and
Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company
Port terminal
For Port-au-Prince. Courtesy of
The Prince's Foundation and
Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company
Waterfront scenario
accessible by alleys. The central block would be watched over by residents,
all of whom have a personal stake in security. The utilities and parking would
be owned in the form of a cooperative or condominium.
The generous size of the historic Port-au-Prince blocks provides space for
central infrastructure and parking while allowing some private space for
residents. Many of the blocks could be designed with neighborhood greens at
the corners. “We expect every block to have a park,” Duany says. “So in fact
every view has trees.” He adds: “This is the virtue of your large blocks —
only a large block can tolerate including a park on the corner.”
The architecture of new buildings would be based on local precedent, the
planners say.
The team envisions initial development of 1- to 2-story buildings, which was
the condition of the downtown prior to the earthquake — “so there is no
reason to think that after the earthquake it will be four stories,” Duany
explains. However, it could evolve to four stories over time, he says. The
form-based code will ensure good urbanism even at a low height, he explains.
If the government were to adopt no plan, some tall buildings would be
constructed, but the rest of the land would have no value for redevelopment.
“It does have vitality — it has the vitality of Haiti — but you will not have
urbanism, which, by the way, people love,” he says.
The plan identified three possible levels of regulation. The minimum would
be a form-based regulation of building frontages — but property owners can
do whatever they want in the back. There would be no parking and a
probable disorganized mess of mid-block buildings, but there would be
urbanism in front. The second level would create collective mid-block
infrastructure, but no parking. The third level would offer collective
infrastructure and parking — 1 car per unit.
Traffic-calming measures such as small roundabouts on the corners would
help to keep traffic flowing at a pace that is not disruptive of pedestrians.
The plan looks at options for transit, including a bus loop, a streetcar loop,
and/or bus rapid transit. “You do have a problem with congestion — but it
creates a level of driving skill that I have never seen in America,” Duany told
the crowd, prompting laughter.
In addition to government administration, tourism could be a source of
employment, Duany says. Essential to that occurring would be developing a
retail-oriented quarter near the port with small, pedestrian-scale blocks,
Duany explains.
Posted by Robert Steuteville on 26 Jan 2011
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For Port-au-Prince. Courtesy of
The Prince's Foundation and
Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company
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