David Goldberg’s “Of Sprawl Schools and Small Schools” (PDF) appeared in the Winter 2005 issue of On Common Ground, published by the National Association of Realtors. As the fate of Bridge Street School is weighed, these excerpts merit consideration: As recently as 1969 roughly half of all students walked or biked to school. In 2001 […]
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School Committee Meeting Underscores Imminent Peril Facing Bridge Street School
The full board of the Northampton School Committee met on October 16. A Bridge Street School parent of two attended and emailed us with their concerns: I would like to bring to your attention that although the school committee meeting was not televised last night, some important information that the public might want to know […]
Zoning Revisions Committee on City Council Agenda for 10/16/08
The proposed Zoning Revisions Committee is on the 10/16/08 agenda of Northampton’s City Council. The meeting will take place at 7:15pm in City Council Chambers, 212 Main Street. The public is encouraged to attend. The City Council will decide whether to endorse the creation of the Zoning Revisions Committee, which is to recommend zoning changes […]
Valley Advocate Critiques Sustainable Northampton Plan
This week’s Valley Advocate critiques the Sustainable Northampton Plan and contrasts it with the picture-filled work from the recent Notre Dame Northampton Urban Design Charrette. Here are a few excerpts: Sustainability: Vision or Buzzword in Northampton?Why Notre Dame’s Urban Design Team’s work matters more than Northampton’s Sustainability Plan In many ways, what Professor Bess and […]
The Notre Dame Northampton Charrette – Website Launches
The Notre Dame School of Architecture has launched a website to present their ideas about Northampton and engage with citizens. Professor Philip Bess and six graduate architecture and urban design students–Kalinda Brown, Dan Degreve, Josh Eckert, Scott Ford, Aaron Helfand, and Crystal Olin–initiated a semester’s worth of study of Northampton with Design Northampton Week. Visit […]
Rutherford Platt, “The Humane Micropolis” – Full Text
Dr. Rutherford Platt has kindly given us permission to reprint the full text of his September 6 guest column in the Gazette. Dr. Platt cautions about the hazards of overplanning a city: The ‘humane micropolis’ Northampton has evolved on its own terms “Design Northampton Week,” which begins this Sunday evening at the Senior Center on […]
Video and Slides: Final Presentation of Design Northampton Week
Here is a Google video of the final presentation of Design Northampton Week. It’s 2 hours and 5 minutes long. Notre Dame Professor Philip Bess and his graduate students offer urban design suggestions for Northampton, drawing on principles of New Urbanism and compact growth. This PDF file (63 pages, 5.8MB) contains all the slides shown. […]
Video: Fourth public “in-process” presentation and feedback session for Design Northampton Week
Here is a complete Google video of Design Northampton Week’s fourth public “in-process” presentation and feedback session that took place on September 12. It’s one hour and 20 minutes long. Thanks to Katharine Baker, a member of the Northampton Design Forum organizing committee, for volunteering to operate our video cameras. This was the last “in-process” […]
Video: Third public “in-process” presentation and feedback session for Design Northampton Week
Here is a complete Vimeo video of Design Northampton Week’s third public “in-process” presentation and feedback session that took place on September 11. It’s one hour and 32 minutes long. Notre Dame students presented ideas for revitalizing King Street between Bridge Road and North Street. They also made suggestions about Hospital Hill (Village Hill), particularly […]
Video: Second public “in-process” presentation and feedback session for Design Northampton Week
Here is a complete Google video of Design Northampton Week’s second public “in-process” presentation and feedback session that took place last night. It’s one hour and 51 minutes long. Notre Dame students presented ideas for making the line of buildings along certain major streets more coherent. Pleasant Street and downtown Florence received attention. The students […]