By Dhyana Kaufman
I invite you to peruse the photo of a high-rise with large, arched windows and the use of colorful script to enhance the facade of the building. Perhaps not the most exciting modernist style, but to my eye it far exceeds the bland concrete and brick boxes that seem to be de rigueur for new construction in the downtown Iowa City area.
This photo from the front page of the New York Times Sept. 9, 2018 is, in fact, a new detention/ “re-education” center for Chinese Muslims in Hotan, China. At first I was bemused at how favorably the prison architecture of a totalitarian state compares to the “high end” hotels and condos being thrown up in the frenzy to transform our once-charming college town into a little Chicago. However, bemusement quickly morphed into angry frustration over the relentless and joyless parade of new construction that lacks aesthetic direction, guidance or vision for the future heart of downtown Iowa City.
As far as I can tell, the central ethos of developers is get it up quick, stack it up high and don’t waste money on architectural innovation. Create a concrete jungle with empty store fronts, no green space and eradicate as much history and sense of place as possible. And this is before the latest plan to cram 1,500 students into less than a city block near the new music building is completed! Maybe someone can get the contract to clean its sidewalks on Sunday mornings.
In contrast the city of Dubuque and some very savvy developers have created a real model of urban design and planning in its Millwork District, with spaces that nurture local business, support community, connection and innovation, while becoming a unique destination area. It is truly charming, delightful and uplifting, of human scale and very livable — in a word, inviting. The opposite of what is happening in Iowa City. What a botched opportunity we will be living with for a very long time. Perhaps we are experiencing a type of re-education camp by a different name.
The opportunity to partner with an architectural firm based in a larger city could make a successful, local architecture business even stronger. Perhaps it’s a matter of time.
Creating these nice friendly green areas tend to only benefit the wealthy who can afford to live in them, while the poor are shunted to poor quality, cramped, and dilapidated areas. The Rise isnt terrific looking, but it has an enormous patio area with hot tubs, lots of plantings, solar panels, and high quality commercial space that can help not only bring in new businesses, but drive rent down in the rest of downtown. Who but the rich can afford to open new local businesses when we limit growth?
Before all this ‘growth’, rents for both residents and businesses were lower. That’s why we had more small businesses – the buildings in which they were situated were already paid off, hadn’t cost more to build and not much to maintain, and were weird and charming, like the businesses that Iowa City successfully nurtured: destination shops. We couldn’t compete with Coralville’s big box, cheap parking model, but we could compete in the department of weird and charming. Then the buildings got bulldozed to make way for bigger ones, on the theory that higher density meant higher taxes and higher foot traffic for business. Some businesses did survive, yes. They can pack a lot of high-priced goods into a small space, or can turn over a lot of goods quickly. But where is Vortex? Fun Zone? We seem to be missing about six bookshops, two of which got bulldozed, and a really popular veg restaurant.
Check your Jane Jacobs. Green doesn’t cost more when it was already there. Buildings don’t cost more when they were already there. Rents don’t have to go down when they weren’t up. It’s not limiting if you pick the right place. Repurpose old neighborhoods as new light commercial ones, and more of us could open little weird, charming destination stores.
…and please stop with the ‘rent will be driven down’. That kind of economics only works when people have absolute freedom of movement. Who but the rich…?
I question comparing a prison building to privately built residential buildings. The call for propoganda to be written on our buildings seems misplaced.
It seems skewed against the new building to post a photo of it under construction when in fact it is completed. The Dubuque Millwork District is a historic district with adaptive reuse going on. It’s amazing. That’s not what is being discussed in this opinion piece which is talking about new buildings.
That said, there are several firms working in Iowa City, but they have to go through the same 3-person panel for review. The more innovative buildings are occurring on Campus. Is this purely a private vs. public effect or are we seeing the personal tastes of a review panel being expressed on a very large canvas?
That said, the building replacing the destroyed Van Patten house is going the extra mile to be interesting. But it’s a 6-story wood frame building on top of a block ground floor like so many other apartment buildings in town and it’s lifespan will be shorter for it.
I feel like we are turning into Coralville and smashing everything with character. I don’t mind a dense downtown but the “upgrades” on Gilbert street break my heart. I want to shop at local, non chain businesses as much as possible. They are being priced completely out. We don’t need more apartments on top of vacant/overpriced retail space. We need basic, cheap apartments.