Exploring cities is one of my favorite things to do. Seeing how other places create vibrant spaces, tackle walkability, accommodate transit, engage pedestrians, connect with nature, and turn up all kinds of unexpected sights and insights along the way.
I got into urban design because of urban journalist and professional observer, Grady Clay. He had a radio commentary series called Crossing the American Grain that I used to catch on WFPL, our local NPR station, on my way in to work at an ad agency another lifetime ago. The more familiar I became with his commentary and his approach to reading the city, the more I started seeing my own surroundings in a new light, with a new kind of appreciation and interest.
Eventually I found my way to his 1972 book Close-Up: How to Read the American City, and its opening lines have stuck with me ever since:
“No true secrets are lucking in the landscape, but only undisclosed evidence, waiting for us. No true chaos is in the urban scene, but only patterns and clues waiting to be organized.”
That intro is a north star for me now whenever I’m out in a new place, trying to understand the story it’s telling. Sometimes reading a city is as simple as noticing how a place has built seating around street trees to offer shade worth resting in. Other times it’s noticing a shift in the street grid, a sign that some historical moment reshaped the course of a place, letting that spark a curiosity about why that happened and the cascade of effects that followed.
When I can, I explore with people who know a place and share that same eye for detail. Early in my career I remember meeting up with Bill Weyland and Jonathan Brannon after work to enjoy a beer and conversations about recent trips with slides of what was seen, and how Bill would incorporate people into shots simply to help provide a sense of scale for things he was focused on. From there I’ve come to love hearing what other people notice when they travel, and even more, figuring out how what we learn elsewhere can inform the places we’re trying to improve here.
That’s the thinking behind a new program bringing local urbanists together to hear about other places… what people saw, what they learned… and to talk about how those observations could help Louisville.
City Explorer Sessions is an evening where a handful of presenters each have ten minutes to share slides and stories from cities they’ve recently visited. Short, visual, conversational. A show-and-tell of what they saw on their travels and how it might inform and inspire a better Louisville. The whole evening runs about an hour and a half, but hopefully provides the participants an opportunity to recharge the creative batteries and spark new ideas.
Our first four presenters – Claude Stephens, Layla George, Christopher Fuller, and I – will cover a range of cities from recent trips, including São Paulo, Barcelona, Detroit, and more. Expect stories about great public spaces and parks, memorable pedestrian experiences, historic buildings, public art, and city design, among other topics.
Big thanks to the folks at Monnik for hosting us for this event.
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