I saw the post about the new Living Urbanism issue on Next Gen, and realized I had never gotten around the finishing the first one. Good stuff. Thanks.

Dan Cotter
Atlanta

Additionally, the need for walkable streets and vibrant public space makes me think of new initiatives in New York City’s Times Square. In Times Square, streets are being closed off to automobiles so that pedestrians have more space to move, and last time I was in the city I saw people camped out on lawn chairs in the streets where cars usually drive. This seems like a first step to creating better public space.

NYC is also implementing a cab sharing system this summer. Other cities have shared cabs for years, but New York is finally catching on. In theory, this system will benefit both taxi drivers and riders because rides will cost less, and will therefore encourage more people to take cabs. If more people use cabs to get around, then drivers will have more customers. With people sharing cabs, the streets will be less congested, which also creates a more walkable, livable environment.

Best,

Mike

@Matt, great article and nice renderings, I think they add a lot to explain the process to the uninitiated.

@All
I think this is an excellent concept worth discussing, but obviously it needs to be fleshed out a bit more? How many people do you (ya’ll) think we can reasonably accommodate with the suggested configuration? What about the plenary type keynote speakers; Is the largest presenting room big enough? How will this affect the cost of the congress? Are we using more or less space overall for the same number of people?

What about printing services? Who pays for them or are we going to exclude them for the working sessions? What kind of goals do you think we could expect to see? My example: I would love to host a session on compiling a collaborative design platform that takes advantage of existing web apps. I think I would want to find a local developer to partner with like Peter French (for example) who has the property and is open to working out a new way to engage the world for the design process. In this example, the sessions would require people to assist with developing the process and people to build the software, models, interface and bridging the gap from each disparate app.

That’s my very quick 2 cents, have to get back to writing change orders though.

-AM

Thank your for commenting. I think a forum like this for public comments on the issues, in the open, best addresses some of the ideas for the change needed. Its great to hear as well that you are looking into integrating PK. Nathan sent a message about the top 10 as well, which I am going to look into in a few minutes.

Regarding the logistics, my reading of the topics simply generated the room distribution by category. If it were determined that more categories exist, they may be expanded, however I doubt that they will expand by much (I meant to post the chart). One important assumption is that the concurrent lectures, being well programmed, will draw a good deal of attention. These take place in the larger ballroom and a medium size lecture room. Between these two, a good deal of attendees will be served. The topic rooms would still be large, however, if they are well managed / moderated, they can perform successfully. The Transportation Authorization session this year seemed to work well, but could have used more time. Similarly the session on Hipsters, though an outsider topic, elicited good comments and could have benefited from more time and a different layout. In any case much of the room atmosphere has to be handled by the team leaders of the day. For instance, some topics may benefit from a debate style layout – it would be up to either the team leaders to make it happen or for the participants to simply step-up and encourage a more successful form of discussion.

As for the quality of discussion, you may notice that even in large lectures, there are relatively few people who contribute. Most people are there to learn through observation. An atmosphere that encourages more audience participation will, I believe, better educate the audience and the presenter alike.

The test in the Hilton took the floor where the grand ballroom is located. The grand ballroom is not pictured because I didn’t have the time to model it or the space between the ballroom and the secondary room where the renderings are shown. The bookstore and trade show would work well in this location, which is essentially to either side of the escalators. The main idea, however, is to concentrate the traffic flow in a central space that itself provides information and even topic orientation.