okay am I on yes okay great one more
okay
let’s reimagine row town imagine a place
you’re gonna go visit or somewhere you
may want to live that has beautiful
scenes incredible beaches amazing nature
places to explore and a city center
that’s not just beautiful
but an amazing place to live in that is
completely connected and wonderful to
live in we have here in the BVI the
beaches and the views we have the nature
trails we do have areas to explore but
we don’t quite have that fantastic
beautiful city center yet so what are we
gonna do about it are we going to go
with how things are doing right now or
do we maybe try to find some way of
changing the path we’re on Main Street
I believe that gives us that quick
opportunity to do an experiment an urban
experiment here we have Main Street from
the old days to today the big difference
obviously the cars are taking over that
Street and it is my belief that they’re
devaluing that Street incredibly Main
Street actually in Roe town only ever
existed and most people don’t know this
between Joe’s Hill about there to Fort
Bert which is here that was the extent
of Roe town or back then called Road
harbor town now the street Main Street
back then was the only way through it
was the main avenue of commerce it had
families living on the street and as an
a pedestrian street actually works
incredibly well this is something as an
architect we aspire to to design into
our centers the Main Street is a
historic Street is our only X historic
Street we have the old museum we have
the government governor’s museum we have
the post office which could
you some serious work but could be
beautiful once again the old Folk Museum
they were Customs House and the new old
prison museum but also there are areas
and small zones and alleys that are of
interest and once we take back Main
Street and turn it into something
incredible
we then these areas can actually start
to enhance their status on the street so
now we have changed ahead how can we get
to turning into the Main Street from one
long car park into something that
actually makes change to the whole of
row town well we have a over dependency
on our cars I think it’s safe to say a
slight addiction so we need to maybe
think of it as a step program for us to
move out of it
step one we have to think of becoming
auto immune basically trying to think we
don’t need to park our car on Main
Street and and doing so stops us
enjoying it I’m not saying that vehicles
aren’t allowed down Main Street at all
they’ll still need access but we have to
stop parking step two deconstructing the
street without the cars there we have a
chance to do a proper infrastructure
rebuild we can take care of the drainage
with new materials such as thirsty
concrete which continuously drains
hundreds of gallons per minute or the
power lines that crisscross above our
heads all come underground we have a
chance to future-proof Main Street and
they’re associated with the buildings on
the side so step three humanizing the
street bringing the design back here
Main Street is a historic Street so we
can start to use textures such as the
road are important to evoke this history
putting in trees but keeping them pruned
high is very important to keep visual
contact with the stores and of course
with a pedestrian the street
cafes and other stores can start to
interact again with the street this
basically will start to make Main Street
us give it a sense of place and I
believe we increased the value of all
the buildings and areas down that Street
starting to bring back residents step
for maintenance well as you saw before
we have the retractable bollards these I
believe are the best system to be able
to control at various times access into
the roads say from 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. they
come down to allow for deliveries or
garbage collection but otherwise through
the day they’re up if emergency vehicle
comes they’ll have proximity sensors to
go down for emergency access but
otherwise the other beauty of the but
these these will be I think the best
solution we will have growing pains no
doubt I’m sure we’ll have a couple
instances of these but I’m sure there
will be short-lived so this also gives
us the beauty of it is that our still
allows pedestrian bicycles but now we
can start to think of new industries for
the historic Road we can bring back the
horse and cart for tourists or even
locals to take to do the historic trip
and bring a new significance to that
road
step 5 this I call the domino effect
this idea that we say we have we have a
successful street now the streets coming
into Roe town it’s a Main Street no
longer have that necessity of what they
were built for which is to bring cars in
so this green vein that started in Main
Street can now start to evolve the
nearby alleys and other streets for
urban art or just new stores so now can
we take this experiment assuming it
worked from the micro of Main Street to
the macro of ro town will these five
simple steps be translatable so step one
also immunity No
cars allowed to park in ro town this is
critical to its success here we can see
a map roughly of all the area that’s
given over to cars for roads or parking
some possible future parking but this
equates to about 60% of the land that’s
used for this purpose I believe this
land is far too valuable and we can find
far better things to do with it
also we have to inspire people to not
use their car or not feel that they have
to use it every day the most the way I
feel that would benefit all of us and
can be done right now or yesterday is a
really good public transportation system
that’s island wide you don’t have to
park right in town you can park at nodes
outside to be able to to get your to be
able to access the road town and again
as you can see the same amount of people
might be slightly off but a bus can help
alleviate the strain on the roads and
obviously maintenance can come down so
step step 2 deconstructing now without
the traffic without the massive carpark
problems that we see almost daily on
Facebook without the smog and and other
health issues we can start again re and
analyzing our infrastructure drainage is
still one of the most difficult problems
to tackle in RO town but now we have our
roads back we can start dealing with
them quickly and properly step 3
humanizing the roads don’t have to be
roads we can turn them into lawns we can
start rethinking there’s so much space
and our schools for instance are full
created brand new school right in the
city center it’s safe now kids can run
around mothers and prams we don’t have
to worry about the cars being a problem
we can have urban farms new parks bike
lanes and then runners around Road
town will be able to what run with with
new areas that are green shady and and
wonderful to be in step for maintaining
this so now as I said no cars are
parking in in town we will need
satellite car parks but these have to be
kept outside of the city center if we
have any hope of actually making a real
change without that that’s it’s not
going to happen so at the car parks you
can have a cooperative of bikes that you
go pick up and drop off anywhere in
Mexico they have these whether the
trikes which are solar-powered they can
be the equivalent of the taxi in the
city center and then in Heathrow they
are using these pods only 23 of these
move 1,500 people a day automatically
from the farthest van the long-term car
park or distant car park into their
terminals all of these can be used to
make sure that we have a new way to get
around wrote down apart from our feet so
step 5 we’ve got now our green city back
we hope we’ve found new ways and not
just for today we can this is setting up
the abilities or future designers and
our future planners have something to
work with if we just leave it with cars
that’s probably the end of row town
apart from having to reclaim more and
more land but use it for cars I think we
need to rethink how we think of our city
center so now it’s a court so sorry the
domino effect Stage five so now we can
this hopefully model moves on to East
End gets to the valley Anegada it’s it’s
a model that can work pretty much
anywhere and we can then be the pioneers
in the Caribbean if not the world by
making a completely carbon neutral
Center we are part of a Paris agreement
by default so we can actually do our bit
and beat the dates so now it’s a call to
action I’d like if you all agree with my
thoughts please we have
get a voice together we need to start
going to the meetings to say how we want
to Ciro town developed either we accept
it for the cars and and the health of
the city may deteriorate further the car
problem will not get better it’s only
going to get worse so if we don’t make a
big step one of autoimmunity we may set
ourselves on a track that’s maybe not
for the best of RO town or the BVI as a
whole ro town is our handshake to the
world so we can make it something
incredibly special and different or as
my initial picture not so inspired look
of it today
sorry so if we think that’s difficult
which it will be it will take a lot of
work but 60 ish years ago today this is
what ro town looked like there was no
wickham’s key one or two really those
the Main Street itself was pretty much
the same as that original map but in
that time we’ve reclaimed 150 or so
acres of land of which only 60 percent
as I said is actually used for something
other than cars or 60 percent is used
for cars so again we need to rethink how
we look at ro town and how we use it so
my goal is to take back our streets take
them away from the cars and give them
back to our our people and our
communities and and really I think it’s
it’s it’s critically important we do
this now sooner than later these are
topics that are current and decisions
are getting made so it’s there is an
urgency in this matter
thank you
[Applause]
okay
let’s reimagine row town imagine a place
you’re gonna go visit or somewhere you
may want to live that has beautiful
scenes incredible beaches amazing nature
places to explore and a city center
that’s not just beautiful
but an amazing place to live in that is
completely connected and wonderful to
live in we have here in the BVI the
beaches and the views we have the nature
trails we do have areas to explore but
we don’t quite have that fantastic
beautiful city center yet so what are we
gonna do about it are we going to go
with how things are doing right now or
do we maybe try to find some way of
changing the path we’re on Main Street
I believe that gives us that quick
opportunity to do an experiment an urban
experiment here we have Main Street from
the old days to today the big difference
obviously the cars are taking over that
Street and it is my belief that they’re
devaluing that Street incredibly Main
Street actually in Roe town only ever
existed and most people don’t know this
between Joe’s Hill about there to Fort
Bert which is here that was the extent
of Roe town or back then called Road
harbor town now the street Main Street
back then was the only way through it
was the main avenue of commerce it had
families living on the street and as an
a pedestrian street actually works
incredibly well this is something as an
architect we aspire to to design into
our centers the Main Street is a
historic Street is our only X historic
Street we have the old museum we have
the government governor’s museum we have
the post office which could
you some serious work but could be
beautiful once again the old Folk Museum
they were Customs House and the new old
prison museum but also there are areas
and small zones and alleys that are of
interest and once we take back Main
Street and turn it into something
incredible
we then these areas can actually start
to enhance their status on the street so
now we have changed ahead how can we get
to turning into the Main Street from one
long car park into something that
actually makes change to the whole of
row town well we have a over dependency
on our cars I think it’s safe to say a
slight addiction so we need to maybe
think of it as a step program for us to
move out of it
step one we have to think of becoming
auto immune basically trying to think we
don’t need to park our car on Main
Street and and doing so stops us
enjoying it I’m not saying that vehicles
aren’t allowed down Main Street at all
they’ll still need access but we have to
stop parking step two deconstructing the
street without the cars there we have a
chance to do a proper infrastructure
rebuild we can take care of the drainage
with new materials such as thirsty
concrete which continuously drains
hundreds of gallons per minute or the
power lines that crisscross above our
heads all come underground we have a
chance to future-proof Main Street and
they’re associated with the buildings on
the side so step three humanizing the
street bringing the design back here
Main Street is a historic Street so we
can start to use textures such as the
road are important to evoke this history
putting in trees but keeping them pruned
high is very important to keep visual
contact with the stores and of course
with a pedestrian the street
cafes and other stores can start to
interact again with the street this
basically will start to make Main Street
us give it a sense of place and I
believe we increased the value of all
the buildings and areas down that Street
starting to bring back residents step
for maintenance well as you saw before
we have the retractable bollards these I
believe are the best system to be able
to control at various times access into
the roads say from 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. they
come down to allow for deliveries or
garbage collection but otherwise through
the day they’re up if emergency vehicle
comes they’ll have proximity sensors to
go down for emergency access but
otherwise the other beauty of the but
these these will be I think the best
solution we will have growing pains no
doubt I’m sure we’ll have a couple
instances of these but I’m sure there
will be short-lived so this also gives
us the beauty of it is that our still
allows pedestrian bicycles but now we
can start to think of new industries for
the historic Road we can bring back the
horse and cart for tourists or even
locals to take to do the historic trip
and bring a new significance to that
road
step 5 this I call the domino effect
this idea that we say we have we have a
successful street now the streets coming
into Roe town it’s a Main Street no
longer have that necessity of what they
were built for which is to bring cars in
so this green vein that started in Main
Street can now start to evolve the
nearby alleys and other streets for
urban art or just new stores so now can
we take this experiment assuming it
worked from the micro of Main Street to
the macro of ro town will these five
simple steps be translatable so step one
also immunity No
cars allowed to park in ro town this is
critical to its success here we can see
a map roughly of all the area that’s
given over to cars for roads or parking
some possible future parking but this
equates to about 60% of the land that’s
used for this purpose I believe this
land is far too valuable and we can find
far better things to do with it
also we have to inspire people to not
use their car or not feel that they have
to use it every day the most the way I
feel that would benefit all of us and
can be done right now or yesterday is a
really good public transportation system
that’s island wide you don’t have to
park right in town you can park at nodes
outside to be able to to get your to be
able to access the road town and again
as you can see the same amount of people
might be slightly off but a bus can help
alleviate the strain on the roads and
obviously maintenance can come down so
step step 2 deconstructing now without
the traffic without the massive carpark
problems that we see almost daily on
Facebook without the smog and and other
health issues we can start again re and
analyzing our infrastructure drainage is
still one of the most difficult problems
to tackle in RO town but now we have our
roads back we can start dealing with
them quickly and properly step 3
humanizing the roads don’t have to be
roads we can turn them into lawns we can
start rethinking there’s so much space
and our schools for instance are full
created brand new school right in the
city center it’s safe now kids can run
around mothers and prams we don’t have
to worry about the cars being a problem
we can have urban farms new parks bike
lanes and then runners around Road
town will be able to what run with with
new areas that are green shady and and
wonderful to be in step for maintaining
this so now as I said no cars are
parking in in town we will need
satellite car parks but these have to be
kept outside of the city center if we
have any hope of actually making a real
change without that that’s it’s not
going to happen so at the car parks you
can have a cooperative of bikes that you
go pick up and drop off anywhere in
Mexico they have these whether the
trikes which are solar-powered they can
be the equivalent of the taxi in the
city center and then in Heathrow they
are using these pods only 23 of these
move 1,500 people a day automatically
from the farthest van the long-term car
park or distant car park into their
terminals all of these can be used to
make sure that we have a new way to get
around wrote down apart from our feet so
step 5 we’ve got now our green city back
we hope we’ve found new ways and not
just for today we can this is setting up
the abilities or future designers and
our future planners have something to
work with if we just leave it with cars
that’s probably the end of row town
apart from having to reclaim more and
more land but use it for cars I think we
need to rethink how we think of our city
center so now it’s a court so sorry the
domino effect Stage five so now we can
this hopefully model moves on to East
End gets to the valley Anegada it’s it’s
a model that can work pretty much
anywhere and we can then be the pioneers
in the Caribbean if not the world by
making a completely carbon neutral
Center we are part of a Paris agreement
by default so we can actually do our bit
and beat the dates so now it’s a call to
action I’d like if you all agree with my
thoughts please we have
get a voice together we need to start
going to the meetings to say how we want
to Ciro town developed either we accept
it for the cars and and the health of
the city may deteriorate further the car
problem will not get better it’s only
going to get worse so if we don’t make a
big step one of autoimmunity we may set
ourselves on a track that’s maybe not
for the best of RO town or the BVI as a
whole ro town is our handshake to the
world so we can make it something
incredibly special and different or as
my initial picture not so inspired look
of it today
sorry so if we think that’s difficult
which it will be it will take a lot of
work but 60 ish years ago today this is
what ro town looked like there was no
wickham’s key one or two really those
the Main Street itself was pretty much
the same as that original map but in
that time we’ve reclaimed 150 or so
acres of land of which only 60 percent
as I said is actually used for something
other than cars or 60 percent is used
for cars so again we need to rethink how
we look at ro town and how we use it so
my goal is to take back our streets take
them away from the cars and give them
back to our our people and our
communities and and really I think it’s
it’s it’s critically important we do
this now sooner than later these are
topics that are current and decisions
are getting made so it’s there is an
urgency in this matter
thank you
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: