Regional and Urban Design Committee

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The Regional and Urban Design Committee (RUDC) aims to improve the quality of the regional and urban environment by promoting excellence in design, planning, and public policy in the built environment. This will be achieved through its member and public education, in concert with allied community and professional groups. Join us!

2024 Symposium

The 2024 symposium will be held in Indianapolis, IN in November. Stay tuned for dates and location. Registration will open in July.

2023 RUDC Symposium

The RUDC Symposium, held in Washington, DC October 19-20, covered emerging trends, theories, and technologies that are shaping the future of regional and urban design. Watch the engaging highlight and speaker videos >.

  • 1.  The Divided City

    Posted 11-04-2015 08:58 AM

    The Divided City

    Recently voices have been heard across the divide: Ta Nahesi Coates is on every media channel, DWatkins has been made an official Baltimore SUN columnist, and a bunch of experts descend on ground zero of the unrest that shook Baltimore on April 27 and the city transportation department conducts a listening session there.

     
    Metro station at Penn North
    (photo: ArchPlan)

    But aside from those overtures, there is no denying that the area wherePennsylvania and NorthAvenues intersect is an unknown for those who live in the more prosperous parts of the city. Likewise, Guilford and Mount Washington are a world apart for residents of the communities of Upton, Druid Heights, Harlem Park or Rosemont, to name just a few. The same statement could be made for just about any American city of a certain size.

    One of the insidious traits of segregation is how easy it makes it for the haves to ignore the plight of the have-nots. For most whites, concentrated poverty and its many ills are an abstraction—something they read about but rarely see, since it exists in parts of town they don't live in or work in or visit. (Steve Bogira, Chicago Reader)

    In the case of the now infamous Penn-North area, it isn't that there aren't any services, there is a subway station meeting several bus lines, there is a very nice city library, the Arch Social Club and until it burned down, a CVS that is now being rebuilt. There are bail bonds offices and within a half mile some 20 to 30 small storefront operations, several of which call themselves groceries.  There are even some street trees on the nearest block of Pennsylvania Avenue which looks a bit like a real main street here. On a warm and sunny fall afternoon the hustle and bustle suggests a healthy street-life, Jane Jacobs’ “eyes on the street.”  

     
    The renovated Arch Social Club at Penn and North
    (photo: ArchPlan)

    It takes a second and third look to realize it isn't all so great. The stores lack variety in their offerings and a good many of the folks on the sidewalks are selling their own goods, right under the nose of the foot patrol of the BCPD and much to the chagrin of those who operate legitimate businesses here. Parents don't want to send their kids to the library, the bail bondsman says the police just don’t do anything and the African American activist who runs the Arch Club agrees. 

    Wealthy suburbs benefit from a vibrant central city—it's often what attracts businesses and people to a region. But those wealthy suburbs tend not to do their share when it comes to dealing with the region's .... Read full article

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    Klaus Philipsen FAIA
    Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
    Baltimore MD
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