[Music]
I grew up in a place called lost
mountain I wanted to be an archaeologist
now maybe that’s having grown up in lost
mountain I wanted to find things to dig
down through the layers and find places
more likely it was a kind of
foreshadowing because as it turns out I
would spend most of my professional life
finding protecting and creating place I
like to think of myself as a people
person but you might also describe me as
a place person loss Mountain is not a
town there is no post office it is just
a crossroads it was defined by its
geography the mountain and a country
store that was perched on the side of
that mountain
now this store is not much to write home
about architectural II but it’s where
our community cross paths neighbors
stopped here for a loaf of bread and RC
and a moon pie the elders of our
community convened here to chew tobacco
and chew the fat well loss Mountain is
about 35 miles from downtown Atlanta
so as the dairy farms and truck farms
gave way to
divisions and stress centers that
country store was repurposed as a bank
now that’s a good thing but I want to
back out and show you lost mountain
today this is a classic case of saving
the building but the place was lost yes
they found a use for that old store but
what they didn’t understand is that it
was the mountain that gave our community
its sense of identity and I knew once
they scraped away literally that piece
of the mountain that piece of my
Appalachia we would never get it back it
still haunts me and it makes me want to
cry place matters so what did I become
not an archaeologist digging down
through those layers finding exotic
places I became an architect and
community planner actually adding the
new layers and I hope doing so with a
respect in regard for those layers that
came before and the value they brought
to their places because those previous
layers
they’ll echo up to either hot or inform
the layers that we add good places are
rarely born fully formed rather they
evolve over time
bit by bit informed by patterns of use
because we do use them because you want
to be their place matters so if place
man
who gets to decide who gets to create
and make place well I would contend that
it should not be the sole purview of
those trained in design in fact I
believe to create good places you must
include those who will use those places
the public the citizens the people the
you that’s the you and the you we are
all responsible for good places in good
design and you know good places when you
see and experience them think about the
places where you vacation think about
the places where you spend time with
family where you run into a neighbor
bump into new people the places you care
about the people places in lost mountain
we were not paying attention and when
you’re not paying attention it’s very
unlikely that you’ll get good places and
you risk losing those important places
that you already have place matters you
have to pay attention to get good places
you have to work hard to protect and
create good places and importantly you
have to believe that you deserve good
places to get good places we make
decisions as community all the time and
those collective decisions communicate
what’s important to us so what are we
communicating with those collective
decisions well I know that most of you
probably all of you have been to a major
university town
so which building is bigger the library
or the football stadium what does that
say about what’s important to us okay I
get an Alabama that is not a fair
question I could show you a small town
in Alabama where the Senior Center is in
the old funeral home what were they
thinking and what does that say about
their values and their regard for their
elders I could also show you the senior
centers in many of the communities where
I have worked that are in cheap metal
buildings on the back of the ball field
miles from the heart of the community
that says loud and clear
we have put you out to pasture what we
build where we build and how we build
says what we value an example that
epitomizes for me this kind of building
to our values can be found in double
springs Alabama here’s the courthouse
what I love about this courthouse is
that it’s on the highest point of the
highest Ridge in this Appalachian
community now this is not a wealthy
community never has been and by Alabama
standards this is a very modest
courthouse built with available local
materials but it has great dignity and
presence and that pride of place signals
the importance of peers coming together
to uphold the laws that we have made
about how we live together as community
that highest point those on
materials in the mid-1800s those were
not decisions made by designers or by
community planners in the mid-1800s
those were decisions that were made by
the citizens by the you so if I look
down the hill along this Ridge and
across the street
I find Town Hall I know the first time I
saw it I really thought it was a
renovated 7-eleven in fact they built it
this way intentionally so if I look at
this beautiful courthouse that my
great-great-great grandparents
generation built and this Town Hall that
my generation built I want to ask who do
you think had more money more collective
disposable capital well what we know
statistically when adjusted it’s about
the same generation to generation but my
great-great-great grandparents
generation built to last
proudly they built a legacy a layer
worth preserving my generation we used
our collective resources to build a
different and very expensive layer
infrastructure and sprawl what we build
where we build and how we build shows
what we value place matters it matters
to our collective psyche it matters to
our well being and it matters to our
bottom line and what we build shows what
we value of course there are some really
good examples where my generation did
believe that we deserve the best in the
not the least or the cheapest good
examples where my generation did decide
to work for and invest in leaving a
legacy one of those examples is here in
our backyard
in Birmingham Alabama it’s a potent
example that illustrates how good design
good place making can change attitudes
sense of possibility and well-being this
is where our study began our first
layers trains came together in the heart
of the downtown moving goods and
services in and out of this post Civil
War new town but by the mid 1970s many
of those rail lines were inactive and
while trains still moved in and out of
our historic downtown this had become a
place of abandonment and blight that
blight reminded us of lost industry lost
sense of potential and for some lost
hope in a revitalized downtown but that
blight was sandwiched between our
powerhouse downtown universities and
medical centers and our evolving and
robust downtown loft district so by the
early 2000s the turn of the 21st century
there were some stubborn optimist like
me who saw that abandonment and saw
opportunity the opportunity for a place
a much-needed downtown park green a
place of renewal
a place where our entire community could
come together in a true living room but
first we needed to ask is this a good
idea and what would be the components of
a place that we and generations to come’
deserved what did you say it should be
authentically Birmingham it should hold
up and celebrate our industrial heritage
and the railroad in that heritage our
first layers that gave value to our
founding but you also wanted a place to
play you wanted green you wanted beauty
you want a community a people place so
where there had been abandonment and
blight we now have a beautiful downtown
park that does all those things and more
it’s a place where we can run and roll
in frolic and are tickled by design and
in a design that reminds us of the
ridges and valleys that are our place in
the world at the beginning of the
Appalachians Railroad Park was
transformative in so many ways we all do
come together here and that investment
in good design and in a people place has
helped to stimulate over 1 billion
dollars of private investment in our
historic downtown railroad park showed
us that we could and we needed that win
in railroad park also represented for
our city a moment when we realized
we had gone
not just from a physical before but also
from a spiritual before to a new spirit
of possibility a spirit of what could be
and a realization that we deserve good
design and good places what we build
where we build and how we build shows
what we value place matters and what we
build shows what we think we deserve is
it the least or the most that we can do
for our community for our people and for
designers place people like me we get
the fun and the joy of building our
dreams the community the you you get to
decide what are those dreams my
challenge to you
please dream big become a place person
engaged in the fun in the hard work and
in the responsibility of good design and good places we deserve it thank you
I grew up in a place called lost
mountain I wanted to be an archaeologist
now maybe that’s having grown up in lost
mountain I wanted to find things to dig
down through the layers and find places
more likely it was a kind of
foreshadowing because as it turns out I
would spend most of my professional life
finding protecting and creating place I
like to think of myself as a people
person but you might also describe me as
a place person loss Mountain is not a
town there is no post office it is just
a crossroads it was defined by its
geography the mountain and a country
store that was perched on the side of
that mountain
now this store is not much to write home
about architectural II but it’s where
our community cross paths neighbors
stopped here for a loaf of bread and RC
and a moon pie the elders of our
community convened here to chew tobacco
and chew the fat well loss Mountain is
about 35 miles from downtown Atlanta
so as the dairy farms and truck farms
gave way to
divisions and stress centers that
country store was repurposed as a bank
now that’s a good thing but I want to
back out and show you lost mountain
today this is a classic case of saving
the building but the place was lost yes
they found a use for that old store but
what they didn’t understand is that it
was the mountain that gave our community
its sense of identity and I knew once
they scraped away literally that piece
of the mountain that piece of my
Appalachia we would never get it back it
still haunts me and it makes me want to
cry place matters so what did I become
not an archaeologist digging down
through those layers finding exotic
places I became an architect and
community planner actually adding the
new layers and I hope doing so with a
respect in regard for those layers that
came before and the value they brought
to their places because those previous
layers
they’ll echo up to either hot or inform
the layers that we add good places are
rarely born fully formed rather they
evolve over time
bit by bit informed by patterns of use
because we do use them because you want
to be their place matters so if place
man
who gets to decide who gets to create
and make place well I would contend that
it should not be the sole purview of
those trained in design in fact I
believe to create good places you must
include those who will use those places
the public the citizens the people the
you that’s the you and the you we are
all responsible for good places in good
design and you know good places when you
see and experience them think about the
places where you vacation think about
the places where you spend time with
family where you run into a neighbor
bump into new people the places you care
about the people places in lost mountain
we were not paying attention and when
you’re not paying attention it’s very
unlikely that you’ll get good places and
you risk losing those important places
that you already have place matters you
have to pay attention to get good places
you have to work hard to protect and
create good places and importantly you
have to believe that you deserve good
places to get good places we make
decisions as community all the time and
those collective decisions communicate
what’s important to us so what are we
communicating with those collective
decisions well I know that most of you
probably all of you have been to a major
university town
so which building is bigger the library
or the football stadium what does that
say about what’s important to us okay I
get an Alabama that is not a fair
question I could show you a small town
in Alabama where the Senior Center is in
the old funeral home what were they
thinking and what does that say about
their values and their regard for their
elders I could also show you the senior
centers in many of the communities where
I have worked that are in cheap metal
buildings on the back of the ball field
miles from the heart of the community
that says loud and clear
we have put you out to pasture what we
build where we build and how we build
says what we value an example that
epitomizes for me this kind of building
to our values can be found in double
springs Alabama here’s the courthouse
what I love about this courthouse is
that it’s on the highest point of the
highest Ridge in this Appalachian
community now this is not a wealthy
community never has been and by Alabama
standards this is a very modest
courthouse built with available local
materials but it has great dignity and
presence and that pride of place signals
the importance of peers coming together
to uphold the laws that we have made
about how we live together as community
that highest point those on
materials in the mid-1800s those were
not decisions made by designers or by
community planners in the mid-1800s
those were decisions that were made by
the citizens by the you so if I look
down the hill along this Ridge and
across the street
I find Town Hall I know the first time I
saw it I really thought it was a
renovated 7-eleven in fact they built it
this way intentionally so if I look at
this beautiful courthouse that my
great-great-great grandparents
generation built and this Town Hall that
my generation built I want to ask who do
you think had more money more collective
disposable capital well what we know
statistically when adjusted it’s about
the same generation to generation but my
great-great-great grandparents
generation built to last
proudly they built a legacy a layer
worth preserving my generation we used
our collective resources to build a
different and very expensive layer
infrastructure and sprawl what we build
where we build and how we build shows
what we value place matters it matters
to our collective psyche it matters to
our well being and it matters to our
bottom line and what we build shows what
we value of course there are some really
good examples where my generation did
believe that we deserve the best in the
not the least or the cheapest good
examples where my generation did decide
to work for and invest in leaving a
legacy one of those examples is here in
our backyard
in Birmingham Alabama it’s a potent
example that illustrates how good design
good place making can change attitudes
sense of possibility and well-being this
is where our study began our first
layers trains came together in the heart
of the downtown moving goods and
services in and out of this post Civil
War new town but by the mid 1970s many
of those rail lines were inactive and
while trains still moved in and out of
our historic downtown this had become a
place of abandonment and blight that
blight reminded us of lost industry lost
sense of potential and for some lost
hope in a revitalized downtown but that
blight was sandwiched between our
powerhouse downtown universities and
medical centers and our evolving and
robust downtown loft district so by the
early 2000s the turn of the 21st century
there were some stubborn optimist like
me who saw that abandonment and saw
opportunity the opportunity for a place
a much-needed downtown park green a
place of renewal
a place where our entire community could
come together in a true living room but
first we needed to ask is this a good
idea and what would be the components of
a place that we and generations to come’
deserved what did you say it should be
authentically Birmingham it should hold
up and celebrate our industrial heritage
and the railroad in that heritage our
first layers that gave value to our
founding but you also wanted a place to
play you wanted green you wanted beauty
you want a community a people place so
where there had been abandonment and
blight we now have a beautiful downtown
park that does all those things and more
it’s a place where we can run and roll
in frolic and are tickled by design and
in a design that reminds us of the
ridges and valleys that are our place in
the world at the beginning of the
Appalachians Railroad Park was
transformative in so many ways we all do
come together here and that investment
in good design and in a people place has
helped to stimulate over 1 billion
dollars of private investment in our
historic downtown railroad park showed
us that we could and we needed that win
in railroad park also represented for
our city a moment when we realized
we had gone
not just from a physical before but also
from a spiritual before to a new spirit
of possibility a spirit of what could be
and a realization that we deserve good
design and good places what we build
where we build and how we build shows
what we value place matters and what we
build shows what we think we deserve is
it the least or the most that we can do
for our community for our people and for
designers place people like me we get
the fun and the joy of building our
dreams the community the you you get to
decide what are those dreams my
challenge to you
please dream big become a place person
engaged in the fun in the hard work and
in the responsibility of good design and good places we deserve it thank you
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