by: Daniel Fox
Event: Towards an Urban Age: Presentation and Reception
Location: Hearst Tower, 05.03.07
Speakers: Richard Burdett — Director, Urban Age & Centennial Professor in Architecture and Urbanism, London School of Economics and Political Science; Bruce Katz — Vice President & Director, Metropolitan Policy Program, Brookings Institution
Organizer: Urban Age; Cities Programme, London School of Economics and Political Science; Alfred Herrhausen Society; International Forum of the Deutsche Bank
Courtesy Urban Age
In addition to the growth of cities relative to rural areas worldwide, the sharp ascendancy of cities in developing Asian, African, and South American countries will redefine human geography over the coming decades. “What is interesting about this pace of change is that we’ve been though it before,” said Richard Burdett, Director of Urban Age. But must the 21st century growth of Mumbai, Shanghai, Sao Paolo, and dozens of other burgeoning cities wreak as much social and environmental havoc as the earlier explosions of London and New York? Urban Age hopes not. Founded in 2005, the organization has held six international conferences to spark discussion among urban leaders about sustainable approaches to metropolitan government, finance, and design.
A presentation of two years’ worth of research included striking demographic information as well as familiar platitudes. Burdett, who directed the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale, “Cities, Architecture and Society,” praised the mayors of New York and London for launching bold planning initiatives such as Bloomberg’s recent PlaNYC 2030. He also gave credit to those cities’ preservation of pedestrian neighborhoods and industrial-era building stock for facilitating mixed-use redevelopment. Addressing a purely national agenda, Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution proposed a “Blueprint for National Prosperity” based on stronger federal incentives for urban economies. His emphatic call to rebuild the middle class and his thumbs-up hand gestures lent a Clintonian tone to his policy discussion.
Exclusive in its posh location at the Hearst Tower’s theater and 44th (executive) floor aerie, the event was inclusive in its interdisciplinary guest and speaker list. The CEO of Deutsche Bank, Josef Ackermann, introduced the first Urban Age Award, an annual prize of $100,000. This year’s recipient will be announced at the Urban Age India conference this fall in Mumbai. Suketu Mehta, an acclaimed author and award jury member who grew up in Mumbai and New York, said the Indian metropolis is experiencing “an economic boom and a civic emergency simultaneously.” The award jury also includes the architect Enrique Norten, Hon. FAIA, and Anthony Williams, a former Mayor of Washington, D.C. Appearing vigorous if a little vague in its mission, Urban Age exemplifies an aspiration to harness the power of planners, financiers, policymakers, architects, and academics toward holistic urban improvement.
Gideon Fink Shapiro is a writer and researcher at Gabellini Sheppard Associates, and contributes to several design publications.