Idea Sketches - The Greening of Henry Street #1

Studies in restoring the scale and reestablishing a sense of place. As much planting as possible to restore the air. Create an oasis with a view.

Roanoke's Original Passenger & Freight Station

This photo post is in response to Kim Hardy's question earlier. Original N&W office building

distant right. Hotel Roanoke far right.

Design09 – The Heart of Roanoke

Since 1979, the City of Roanoke has not experienced a more effective effort to shape the future of Downtown Roanoke than the Design'79 Urban Design & Planning exercise conducted by legendary architects Charles Moore & Chad Floyd. The secret to their success was the utilization of local TV productions to capture and engage Roanoke citizens in the process. It also was a well designed process that recruited the active participation of local private architectural and engineering firms.

Today, we find ourselves on Facebook, Twitter and a multitude of other social media sites communicating more than we did when we were growing up in 1960's thru 1990's suburban homes not even knowing our neighbor's names. A ”virtual world” site called SecondLife by Linden Labs is being utilized governments and universities around the world to establish virtual conferences , exhibits, meetings and online classrooms. http://www.secondlife.com/

I am a home-grown local architect, who has practiced throughout VA, and in MD, DE, MI, MN, NC, and TX. I created a group page on FB that seeks to actively engage all current residents, with private and business interests, as well as the bountiful resource of Downtown Roanoke's users, merchants, and clientele, in an urban design experience. It is my belief that this experience will evolve into a dynamic continuing urban design process that will assure greater fiscal efficiency through sustainable improvements.

Urban design is a part of much more encompassing plan called a Comprehensive Plan in most communities. An interesting article and discussion of the subject is on Wikipedia @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_design the following was excerpted from that article:


Urban design considers:
Urban structure – How a place is put together and how its parts relate to each other
Urban typology, density and sustainability - spatial types and morphologies related to intensity of use, consumption of resources and production and maintenance of viable communities
Accessibility – Providing for ease, safety and choice when moving to and through places
Legibility and wayfinding – Helping people to find their way around and understand how a place works
Animation – Designing places to stimulate public activity
Function and fit – Shaping places to support their varied intended uses
Complementary mixed uses – Locating activities to allow constructive interaction between them
Character and meaning – Recognizing and valuing the differences between one place and another
Order and incident – Balancing consistency and variety in the urban environment in the interests of appreciating both
Continuity and change – Locating people in time and place, including respect for heritage and support for contemporary culture
Civil society – Making places where people are free to encounter each other as civic equals, an important component in building social capital


Through the use of currently common technology, I have created 3D models of “The Heart of Roanoke” to use in the study of the growth, influences and role changes in the history of the area.
After a cautious beginning four months ago, the Group now has attracted 325 members including many prominent residents of the city. The Facebook Roanoke Network currently has over 102,000 members registered. The city’s current total population is approx. 94,000!
Members of the Group are encouraged to submit photos of the downtown area to convey observations of the things we would like to protect and those things we would like to see changed. Other members comment on the photos, as well, providing opportunity for discussion and ideas.
Link: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=77917629910
My professional experience has brought me to a place where I can provide a strong sense of connection to the specific area and community of interest and a long history of field study and education in design, planning, architecture and related public governance. In addition to utilizing “new-media” in this project, I am trying to engage the community deeply into the process that I, as an architect and an urban designer pursue on a day to day basis, including cataloguing and recording the activities.

So, it sounds g-r-r-reat, but, HOW DOES IT WORK?

I seem to always find myself a little out of “sync,” particularly, while trying to push the envelope in the development and communication of new designs and new ideas.
As I began this project, coming from a more traditional urban design and planning perspective, I anticipated developing a linear chart of activities and events based upon a time schedule. The Heart of Roanoke, however, has quickly assumed a vitality and direction of its own, that I am still trying to understand! While I delve further into developing ways to share the experience of re-shaping & re-molding & re-modelling our environment, I quickly forget that some of the tasks I learned only a month ago, have become second-nature to me. So that, I forget to leave the gate open behind me, so to speak.

Following, I arranged some screen shots that should look similar to what you see on your computer/device when you are in Facebook.
First, is your home page. The following is a screen shot of mine (w/modifications to protect privacy):


What follows will be your Groups page. The column of groups on the left shows groups recently joined by your friends. The column on the right shows groups you have joined listed in order of updates, most recent on top.





Next, you’ll see “The Heart of Roanoke” main page. Be sure to use your scroll bar (or scroll wheel on your mouse). It is a long page and has several different sections:

After opening the Photo Gallery on The Heart of Roanoke Page, you’ll be able to review each photo and comments others have made. You are also encouraged to leave your own comments that may occur to you.

The next screen reveals a larger image of the photo, the photographer’s caption, and comments by others.

Please enjoy yourself.

Comments are subject to deletion if deemed inapproriate.

Looking across The Heart of Roanoke in Google Earth

This view shows an overlay of an 1891 map on our contemporary landscape. Compare this image to the previous historic photograph. In the Google image you can see the Burrell site in the lower right hand corner near the Google logo. What other common locations can you identify?

This is an example of the kind of study required that can yield observations over the city's growth. I noticed that the streets that I could see appeared to be dirt. And this view is quite barren of trees.

Permission to publish Norfolk Southern images must be obtained from NS before TIFF images will be provided. Permission to publish must be obtained from Rhonda.Broom@nscorp.comNorfolk & Western Historical Photograph Collection

Looking across The Heart of Roanoke

Looking across The Heart of Roanoke in 1898 from the site of The Allegheny Institute which became Burrell Memorial Hospital.

Permission to publish Norfolk Southern images must be obtained from NS before TIFF images will be provided. Permission to publish must be obtained from Rhonda.Broom@nscorp.com
Norfolk & Western Historical Photograph Collection