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That sucks. What's going on with urban design? It seems like all skate spots/plazas that get torn down are replaced by something that is not only less skateable, but much less 3-dimensional and interesting from a pedestrian perspective.
Building materials are expensive, construction is expensive. More expensive than it used to be when adjusted for inflation. So, by default, designs will be simpler and boring. This explains the 'what'.
As to the 'why':
- Parks departments, like all government departments need to justify their existence. This or that space needs to be renovated and rebuilt to maintain a budget. There's actually a well researched phenomenon of end-of-year "surge spending" where departments use up the remainder of their budget to ensure they receive the same or more the next year. A 'use it or lose it' phenomenon.
- Construction companies are entrenched and have lobbying power. They'll help drive the process of building something new.
- The plaza was flattened to make it easier to monitor. This addresses a way to control problems (homelessness, drugs, etc.) rather than spending money on solutions.
- People have crappy taste! "Outdated" designs are being destroyed for crap like this all over the country.
To add on to what was said. In short, a lot of the more 3 dimensional architecture you're referring to is of the modernist era of planning (mid- 20th century) - an era which LOVE Park's architects Ed Bacon an Vincent Kling were firmly a part of. This era was characterized by expansive downtown plazas, large monuments, and rough austere building materials. It was thought that these open spaces in between skyscrapers would be desirous as a place for people to gather and relax. Rather, come the 80's cities were widely disinvested from, and downtowns became more or less abandoned. Amidst the Reagan era's dismantling of the welfare state, these modernist era plazas became sanctuaries for the homeless amongst other things (like skaters), and were moralized by politicians and middle class Americans as a symbol of the decaying city and the social ills that characterized it. And so, the modernist era of planning/architecture came to be widely perceived negatively, part of it being the modernist era's own ideological shortcomings, but also the era was conflated with other large-scale dynamics that characterized the time. And so, the current era of planning is in many respects a rejection of that era. instead of monumental expansive austere plazas, there's a focus on small, intimate, programmable, "activated" spaces. The reciprocal feedback loop is that much of this drives and is driven by the "back to the city movement" or reductively, yuppie driven gentrification. Beer gardens draw in yuppies, and subsequently increased housing prices, tech start ups, and what not, thus filling the pockets of the city's politicians and business community. And so, you get the new LOVE Park, great for marketing opportunities, big sponsored events, instagram photos, etc etc. all the while, keeping the homeless and skaters and whatnot out cause there is no where for them to sit/skate/hang out, plus the parks are privately managed, so theres security guards there all the time. That was a really really terse explanattion, but im high now and that was the best i could do.
Topic: the new LOVE Park sucks and it pisses me of (Read 11959 times)