Standing at the foot of Union Avenue, two couples from Indiana are surveying the Mississippi River when one of the men said: “I’ve been here four times for Elvis Week. I absolutely love this city, but it doesn’t look much like it loves itself. Memphis could use lots of TLC.”
Their conversation then covered littered downtown streets, “bombed out” neighborhoods they drove through from Graceland to the riverfront, the long walk to the Tennessee Welcome Center to see the Elvis statue, and the absence of an active riverfront.
While the kneejerk reaction of a local is to defend Memphis, it’s always important to listen to how other people see us.
After all, the riverwalk where they are standing is too narrow, it feels isolated because of the four lanes of traffic they had to cross to get there, and its view overlooks deteriorating cobblestones.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee was fond of saying that if you bought a gallon of milk in Memphis on your way to Little Rock on I-40, it would be buttermilk when you got there. Such was the sorry state of the interstate back then. The same can be said these days of patched up Riverside Drive and most streets into downtown, notably Union Avenue and South Main Street.
Design Problems Abound
If the Hoosiers had switched to the other side of the street, they would have encountered an obstacle course with traffic and riverwalk signs in the middle of the sidewalk as they walked north to the Tennessee Welcome Center, where the exhibits of the Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau look like high school science fair projects with peeling labels and artless presentations.
To the south, the original architectural design of Beale Street Landing, notably the gentle, sloping roof that was its hallmark, was altered with an oversized elevator. In addition, the seamless connection to Tom Lee Park envisioned in the beginning is now gone because of the new parking lot south of Beale Street Landing.
The park, like all of downtown and much of Memphis, is populated by “urban tombstones” – the large electrical transformers that Memphis Light, Gas & Water seems willing to put almost anywhere – in parks, on key street corners, on sidewalks, in sight lines, and in some of Memphis’ most photographed places.
Hopefully, the Main to Main project will bring downtown’s Main Street to an acceptable standard that eliminates the broken gratings and patchwork plywood repairs.
Lack of Love
Cancerous blight makes it questionable if some Memphis neighborhoods can be saved. Major arteries like Front Street are pockmarked with holes and asphalt patches.
The Unified Development Code, which took years to develop and promised a new and better future for neighborhoods, runs the risk of being a shadow of what its potential could have been and even overlay zoning districts are treated as irrelevant. In those heady days when the UDC was being written, so many people were excited to be setting new priorities for the future and talking about concepts like small corner radii, scale, light standards, transect, walkability, and street trees. Those hopeful conversations today feel like distant memories.
All of this makes an out-of-towner’s comment that Memphis “doesn’t look like it loves itself” seem accurate.
A Marker
One marker for a city that loves itself is in good urban design that at the least ties together a city with a cohesive sense of itself, that is about the connectivity of special places, and that at its best produces an architectural pride and commitment that lift up a city and shape its pride and character through its insistence on architectural integrity, high-quality design, and quality control in execution.
It’s not that we don’t have examples of where this is done right. We have AutoZone Park and FedExForum, and if anything, those stand apart not just by the final product but by their founding principles. Still, most Memphis projects (including Beale Street Landing) are judged on the basis of how cheaply they can be done, but these two athletic facilities were all about setting the design standards high.
While cities around the U.S. are spending hundreds of millions on their riverfronts, here, we wring our hands because the signature placemaking project on the river cost $43 million. In truth, from the beginning, the project should have been twice that amount so it could make some much-needed improvements to Tom Lee Park, it could put the parking lot underground, it could restore the cobblestones, and it could create a charming water park at the former Jefferson Davis Park.
And if we were really serious, the pricetag could have been three times more, and we could have gotten rid the ugly riverfront garages by building new ones underground with retail facing Riverside Drive (yes, we know about the promenade but it’s time to take that issue to court and learn once and for all what can really be done there), and develop the Memphis Art Park.
Unfocused Groups
Today, too many of our projects look like they are the result of focus groups of attorneys and engineers in which the former group talks only about liability and the latter group rarely mentions design. Unfortunately, in a no-risk environment like ours, these concerns take on inordinate influence and no one is willing to say no to design disruptions.
Because we take a project-building approach rather than a placemaking approach, projects tend to stand alone and are built by a variety of public agencies without any overriding vision for the kind of city they are building, much less with a sense of connectivity and with programming to attract users.
Smart cities don’t behave this way. They emphasize quality public realm and they have a philosophy or at least an understanding of what kind of built environment they want if their city is to project a positive image and send a message about their city.
The public get it. Several years ago, when Sustainable Shelby process ranked the recommendations of its comprehensive report through the combination of public survey and input from 150 people in working groups, the #1 priority set from the public input was for Memphis and Shelby County to create model public realm.
Design Matters
There are a number of ways that other cities are working to make sure that design matters. Some have design studios inside their operations that vet every investment to ensure that the city’s design principles and values are being met. Some have a city architect that performs this function and some have several architects in various divisions. Others use a nonprofit organization like a design center and yet others have an architectural advisory committee.
These are ways used to address the problem of siloed public agencies that are full of functional specialists who are often so overworked or only focused on their specific projects that they don’t pay a lot of attention to how their specific work affects the quality of the whole. Rather than seeing themselves as engineers, planners, service providers, and the builders of specific projects, we need public agencies full of people who see themselves as “city designers.”
There are many cities that are moving from good to great, but before that transition began, they had declare that good was not enough and that they deserved more. Here, our feelings of unworthiness suggest that good is good enough for us. Even worse, we don’t think we deserve the best, and as a result, we aim for cheap rather than great and for budget cuts instead of great design.
Great design focuses on the arrangement, appearance, and function of our community. It’s both the process and the outcome. It has to be multi-disciplinary for it to work best. It’s both macro and micro, from urban structure to the fine grain: façade, details, and materials. Its outcome has to be more than a specific project because it needs to be a long-term process that layers upon itself to give Memphis a unique identity.
TLC and TCB
When done right, the words that define urban design success are connected, diverse, enduring, celebratory, eco-friendly, resilient, harmonious, sustainable, comfortable, vibrant, safe, engaging, aspirational, and walkable. We’re sure there are even more; however, it depends on a culture that insists on good design, celebrates the best examples, and rewards design excellence so the public understands that urban design is about much more than beautification.
More to the point, it is a complex process of ordering our natural and manmade features to establish a distinct visual image and identity – sense of place – with urban design principles that improve the quality of life – livability. It results in a more aesthetically pleasing city and a happier place to live, not only in the physical sense but also in the emotional and sensory sense.
We talk a lot these days about branding and the need for a strong brand for Memphis, but as Mark Twain said, each of us takes stock of a city like we take stock of a person – by how it looks. In this way, few things could affect and shape Memphis’ image more than good urban design.
One of our favorite architects often says: “Good design is worth fighting for,” and because of it, the Indiana Elvis fans are right: Memphis does need some tender loving care. Then again, it would also help if we adopted Elvis’ famous motto with its lightning bolt feature: TCB.
Right now, as much as anything, we need to be taking care of business.
Previously posted September 11, 2013
Our family visited St. Louis last weekend and what really stood out to us was the City’s huge stock of historical buildings/homes and the virtual non-existence of strip malls within the City. I am guessing that the City’s decline had a silver lining in that developers of strip malls avoided new projects within the city limits.
Unfortunately Memphis didn’t escape getting paved with strip-malls. Strip malls sap my imagination for re-development, short of bull-dozing them and starting over. Old neighborhoods provide you with a great starting point with a sense of place already built into them.
“small corner radii, scale, light standards, transect, walkability, and street trees”
you forgot the whiskey barrel planters and handicapped/LGBT/minority/veteran/bike and dog friendly park with built in rainbow and Obama speeches on demand.
old neighborhoods also provide many fine dilapidated homes for sale from the Land Bank and fair hunting for neighborhood gangs looking for protein.
Is there any type of advocacy that could work to give the UDC more teeth? What could be enacted to make it more difficult for developers to obtain variances?
One of your absolute best. Thank you for reminding us not to lose heart, and to believe that we can be a great city if we have the will and desire to reach for it.
For those of us who live here, we just don’t realize how badly Memphis has deteriorated.
Yes, our streets have many potholes and trash and there are more than enough abandoned buildings. Downtown is depressing, yet other areas like South Memphis and the Lamar Avenue area are even worse. It was not always like this.
Our “urban tombstones” are abundant – the Sterrick Building, 100 North Main Street, Sears Crosstown, just to name a few big ones. Our attempts at revitalization seem half-baked and poorly executed. Beale Street is terribly unsavory and unsafe at any hour. I fear the Pyramid’s reincarnation as a Bass Pro Shop just won’t last very long. If you look at the downtown Memphis skyline today, it actually looks very much like it did 25 years ago. No new towers, tons of parking lots and empty lots.
The past 25 years have not been good ones for Memphis. Our population is declining and people are moving farther and away from the problems of the city, namely the crime. There are a few small pockets where things seem to be stable or slightly improving, but overall Memphis seems to be a city in decline. I wish this was not so, but the facts and data just don’t support it.
Ramey- being a local, I’m not sure how you missed it but construction is well underway on the renovation of Sears Crosstown as a massive mixed use development. In fact, there is an article in the CA noting the recent single family housing starts in the surrounding neighborhood in response to the project. Places like South Main and Overton Square (much of Midtown for that matter) are downright vibrant The upcoming opening of the Chisca as luxury apartments – not to mention a veritable land run as developers look to capitalize on the neighborhoods few remaining undeveloped parcels- is a strong signal regarding that Soth Mains rebirth. In many ways it reminds me of Nashville’s Gulch District except that South Main has real character. As for 100 North Main, the new owner has already announced his intentions regarding the renovation of that tower as a mixed use project. New towers might seem nice, but they are hardly indications of a healthy city center. Downtown Dallas has struggled with reinventing it’s city center as a real neighborhood that lives on after 5pm and like Nashville and Atlanta, has struggled in the post recession economy with high office vacancy rates. as soon as I find the site I will post the address, but just a few years ago a graduate student did a city of urban cores comparing parcels with occupied buildings to parcels occupied by surface parking. Long story short, Downtown Memphis has a surprisingly small percentage of surface parking lots- in fact it is one of the best ratios in the southeast. It’s a testament to urban “renewal” run amok in places ranging in size from Atlanta to Nashville to Jackson (MS) and how creating “place”, character and “branding” are such critical issues in those places and many others: because they demolished much of what made them unique.
I agree that this community is struggling- but lets not make overreaching statements based on hearsay or extremely outdated information.
For what it’s worth, I used to work at 100 North Main and really doubt it can be rehabbed because the building is in extremely poor condition and it would take many, many millions. Also, the parking garage there is tiny and can barely handle even handle small cars. Like the Sterick bldg., 100 N Main has no future. The Chisca is really a squat ugly building and will have a bunch of Section 8 housing — just what we don’t need more of here, especially downtown. As for Sears Crosstown, the place is huge and only a small part can be successfully rehabbed with a few small businesses. Memphis is pretty blighted for sure.
In stark contrast to Memohis, Nashville is booming.
I read that Bridgestone is moving its North American headquarters to a new 35 floor office tower in downtown Nashville and moving 700 new employees from Chicago and Indianapolis to Nashville.
Nashville is on a major roll with the lowest office occupancy rate in decades. Hence all the new office towers going up in the downtown, Gulch, Music Row and West End areas. HCA is building a huge new campus in the Gulch. There are numerous office towers, condo towers, apartment towers, and more hotels than you can count, including a 40 story JW Marriott next to the huge new Music City Center convention complex.
Also, Nashville will soon open a new downtown baseball park and riverfront amphitheater. They are also building a sexy pedestrian bridge linking downtown to the Gulch area. Without doubt, Nashville is totally booming and keep on earning it’s reputation as America’s “It City.”
George, Ramey, Anon whatever you chose to call yourself next:
You are obviously the same troll that has plagued this site from time to time. First, I can assure you that Chisca will not be section 8 housing and is in fact market driven luxury apartments which is slated to open very soon as construction wraps up. You are obviously completely unfamiliar with the that project. The Sears Crosstown project was only feasible because it has been pre-leased by several corporations and institutions. I doubt your architectural, engineering or development credentials regarding 100 North Main. Your scale of “many, many million” is laughable. Of course it will cost more than a “couple” or even “few millions” but so does any major project. It too will be going forward despite your uninformed opinion.
As for downtown Nashville’s high office vacancy rate- I will stick to actual real estate market reports which reflect an unhealthy office market- specifically in the civic core and along some fo the city’s major corridors as opposed to your somewhat dippy display of civic boosterism.
I will also go out on a limb here and say this: please seek the help you desperately need. Your somewhat twisted desire to elevate Nashville to a much higher quality place than it actually is speaks more to an unhealthy association of your personal ego with that city. I suggest trying to develop your own sense of self-worth that is not wholly dependent on a location.
I don’t believe Chisca is supposed to be either luxury or Section 8, rather it will be affordable.
But not the same George as 7:50 AM
Th e earlier post about all the new construction that’s going on in Nashville is correct. Just sayin…..
Well then smartass, what exactly, SPECIFICALLY, should Memphis do to emulate Nashville’s success? Magically change our racial, educational and wealth demographics? What a douchebag. Go back to getting shot down on Tinder, you twit.
A large part of the problem is the big chip on the shoulder many Memphians seem to have about the problems in the city.
Anon 3:34- you are responding inappropriately to a legitimate question being asked of the local troll.
Why are Memphis people just so damn backward?
Anon 2:11- Why does a small % of the population get off on trolling blogs?
We seem to have an obsession of defining success as becoming Nashville. Perhaps, success is more about being the best Memphis that we can possibly be.
Right now, Nashville is the city of the moment, and few cities can compete with it. But, my friends there tell me that they wish they had our restaurants, that their new baseball ballpark would be as good as ours, that their professional sports team could galvanize the city like ours, how they wish decisions weren’t made by the select elite, etc., etc.
I once had an editor who said: “There are no boring cities. There are only boring reporters.” Maybe that goes for citizens too. There is plenty about Memphis that should excite us. We have problems – so does Nashville – but if we are willing to be citizens who want to make good things happen, Memphis can succeed.
Urbanut: to answer your question, so far, this particular person has used seven different names.
Well that is cause for concern. Anyone who takes pleasure at the perceived discomfort of others is a deeply troubled individual, but to display such emotions publicly and under numerous pseudonyms reflects a potentially dangerous mental state.
Unfortunately, Memphis has very little to work with.
A-
It’s “with which to work” you trolling dolt.
It is a “lack of love” that has always stood in the way of real progress in Memphis. This is a city loves to hate on itself. Sure, we’ve got serious problems and are being left in the dust by our peer cities, we just don’t have a tradition of real leadership. It’s like Memphis has been cast adrift and we’ve gone far off course.