GREAT STREETS: MONUMENT AVENUE, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA BY ALLAN B. JACOBS Streets are more than public utilities, more than mere traffic ‘conduits, more than the equivalent of ‘water lines and sewers and electric cables, more than lin- ‘ear physical spaces that permit people and goods to get from here to there. To be sure, communication remains a major purpose, along with unfettered public access to property. These roles have received abundant attention, particularly inthe latter half of the twentieth century. Other roles have not. Streets shape the form and comfort of urban communities. ‘Their sizes and arrangements give or deny light and shade. They ‘may focus attention and activities on one or many centers, at the edges, along a line, or they may simply direct one’s attention to nothing in particular. The three streets that lead from the Piazza delPopoloin Rome, Viadel Corso in the center, give focus to that city as does nothing else. So does ‘Market Street in San Francisco, and a hundred Main Streets in small cities across the United States. Streets allow people to be outdoors. Except for private gar- dens, which many urban people do not have or want, or immedi- ate access to countryside or parks, streets constitute the out-of doors for many urbanites, Streets are also places of social and commercial encounter and exchange. They are where people ‘meet — which is basic reason we have cities in any case. People ‘who really do not like other people, not even to see them in any ‘numbers, have good reason not to live in cities orto live isolated from city streets, > Allan B. Jacobs is chair of the Department of City and Re This article in adapted, with permission, fram ki recently publiched book, Gres 1 of California, Berkaley, CA 94720. ets (Cambridge: MIT Prese, 1993). 19 Unie © au EEE‘The street is movement — to watch, to pass —especially movement of people: of fleeting faces and forms, changing pos- tures and dress. You see people ahead of you or over your shoulder or not at all, absorbed in whatever has taken hold of you for the moment, but aware and com forted by the presence of others all the ‘same. Youcan stand in one place or sitand ‘watch the show. The show is not always pleasant, not always smiles or greetings orlovers hand-in-hand. There are cripples and beggars and people with abnormali- lke the lovers, they can give pause: they are cause for reflection and thought. Everyone can use the street. Being on the street and seeing people, it js possible to meet them, ones you know or new ones. Knowing the rhythm of a street is to know who may be ont, or ata certain place along it during a given peri- od; knowing who can be seen there or avoided. ‘As well as to see, the street is a place to be seen, Sociability is a large reason cities exist, and streets are a major if not the only public place for that sociability to develop. At the same time, the street is a place to be alone, tobe private. It's aplace where the mind can wander, triggered by ‘something there onthe street, or by some- thing internal, more personal. It's a place ‘to walk while whatever is inside unfolds ‘Some streets are for exchange of ser- vices or goods: places to do business. They are public showcases, meant to ‘exhibit what a society has to offer, and to entice, The merchant offers the goods, displays them, on the street if allowed, with wares to be seen. The looker sees, ‘compares, fingers, discusses with com- ‘anion, and ultimately decides whether to center the selling environment or not, whether to leave the anonymity and pro- tection of the public realm and enter into private exchange. ties, and, ‘The street is a political space. It’s on Elm Street that neighbors discuss zoning ‘or impending national initiatives and on Main Street, at the Fourth of July parade ‘as well as the anti-nuclear march, that politcal celebrations take place. It's not easy to distribute non-mainstream ideas in a shopping mall, much less to have a demonstration in one, Those are private places, Lest we discount the importance of the public street as a political place in favor of modern electronic media of com- ‘munication, recall where the demonstra- tions and actions and marches ofthe late 1980s took place in eastern Europe: in public places and most especially in streets, It is not surprising that, given their ‘multiple rolesin urban life, streets require and use vast amounts of land. In the United States, from 25 to 35 percent of a City's developed land is likely tobe in pub- lic rights-of-way, mostly in streets. When ‘we speak of the public realm, we are speaking in large measure of streets. ‘What is more, streets change. They are ‘tinkered with constantly. Every change ‘opens an opportunity for improvement. If ‘we can develop and design streets so that they are wonderful, fulfilling places to be — community-building places, attractive public places fr all people — then we will have successfully designed about one- third ofthe city directly and will have had an immense impact on the rest. So, in our pursuit of good and fulfill ing urban places, itis important to study the physical, designable, buildable qu: ties ofthe best streets — the great streetsAMERICA’S RESIDENTIAL BOULEVARDS ‘The residential boulevard may be a unique North American contribution to the world’s streets. Generally wide, resi- dential boulevards are invariably tree- lined, they often have graceful curves, they are shaded and cool in the summer, and they are quiet. They come with or ‘without planted median (through which trolley may once have run) and they are long. Lined with large homes, spaced at some distance from each other and well set back from the street on cared-for lawns, these streets bespeak well-being. ‘They were supposed to. Often they were the centerpiece of land development pro- ‘motions and were finely builtin advance of the homes that were to line them, to ive a sense of what was to come, to tell the prospective wellto-do owner-builder that this would be just the place for him and his family. Roots of these streets may be in French boulevards, or English vil- lages, or the residential sections of earli- cer American small towns with their elm- shaded main streets. They are often asso- ciated with suburban development, not as, often with central urban environments. ‘The various parkways connecting the lakes and that are part of the ‘Minneapolis park system aresuch streets, and so is Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C., Shaker Boulevard in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and Fairmount Boulevard or Euclid Heights Boulevard in Cleveland Heights, immediately east of Cleveland. Siill others are Saint Charles Avenue in New Orleans (an urban exam- ple) and Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena, California, Monument Avenue is urban and not far from the city center. Noris it necessary to be welltodo to live alonggt. Its physical design is compelling. MONUMENT AVENUE Monument Avenue starts with a dif- ferent name, Franklin Street, at Capitol Square in the downtown area, one and one- half miles away, and becomes Monument Avenue at Stuart Circle, marked by a stat uueof Jeb" Stuart. Itthen proceeds straight in a northwesterly direction for many miles to the end of the city, Atits officially named beginning, Monument Avenue is part ofthe Fan District, two blocks in from this area's northern edge. ‘The Fan District is made of tight urban streets lined with mostly brick townhouses that share common walls, and with one-, two-, and four- family dwelling structures and apartment build ings set close to each other and narrowly setback from the sidewalks. Along some streets there isa sense of elegance and of carly wealth. Just to the east of the Fan District lies Virginia Commonwealth University — many new buildings mixed with old ones, students, growth, activity, some spilling over into the’Fan. It is the kkind of area that, during the 1950s and 1960s, was classified as “inner city blight.” Sill, people who saw the potential of the location, the urban streets, and the hous- ing, devoted great care tothe Fan District. ‘There has been much restoration, often, it seems, by young people. Not all of the Fan District is in the best condition; if there was wealth earlier, some ofit seems gone now, butthe elegance and the urban ity remain, We are interested in the stretch of ‘Monument Avenue running from Stuart Circle to North Boulevard, a distance of eight blocks covering close to one mile. ‘This section isagreat street: an urban res- ‘dential boulevard close to the city center; a grand remembrance to a lost cause, the Civil War. It isa positive achievement of physical design that is a social achieve- ment as well, > A the Fon District, @ stonewall Jockin Monument IB siesmn Deis Hermes © Rober. Lee Monument 0228.5 MonumentPlan ond section drawing — Monument Avenve ‘The special character of the build- ings along Monument Avenue lies more in their variations than in their individual designs, Some are outstanding and all are pleasant. They all have doors that face the street. They all have many windows, usu- ally wth fine panes, and many have porch- ces that permit people to inhabit the street without actually being on it. Bricks are in wide variety of earth tones. The 10 0r20 feet of front yard, a transition between public and private realms, permit variety of landscape designs, including trees and flowering plants. Mounument Avenue is rot a street for one class of people: the elderly, young, and middle-aged live there, and the wellodo and the less well- to-do, ifnot the indigent. There are not 100 ‘many well-designed residential boule- vards that can respond to the housing needs of a diverse population. Monument Avenue’s street section is deceptively simple. A 40-foot central ‘median is flanked by two 36f00t road- ‘ways which in turn are bounded by 10- {foot sidewalks, Houses and small apart- ‘ment blocks are set back 20 feet from the walks, except that porches, where they exist, are only 10 feet back. Buildings are ‘twoand one-halftothree and one-half sto- ries high. Just inside the curbs, along the ‘two walks and in the median, are pin oaks and sugar maples, mostly the latter. ‘Varying in height from 30 to 50 feet, they form four straight lines. ‘The linearity of extremely welhexe- cuted parts — the trees, the median, the streetlights, details ofthe curbsand street paving itself, and the houses — punctuat- ed by four monuments along the way, accounts for the special physical charac- ter ofthe street. The tree spacing is uni- form, 36to 40 feet apart, and the trees line up across the street, coming as close as possible to intersections. Their crowns often join together, reinforcing the four lines. Streetlights spaced 80 to 115 feet apart also create lines along the side walks. The streetlights have two designs, with the most elegant being an acorn globe onadark green, fluted pole. The two 36-footwide automobile roadways are paved with a gray asphalt brick bordered on each side by 3-foot wide concrete strips. Each roadway permits two parking lanes and two moving lanes, more (by one parking lane) than is permitted on street of that width designed in the early 1990s. Since there are no breaks in the curbs, linearity is again emphasized. Finally, therearethebuildings. Although they are different one from another in design and in materials (though many are brick), they are of similar height so that they, too, formlines long the street. They are close enough to each other that, walking or dr ving along the street, one does not nor: mally see rear yards, ‘The linearity is punctuated on Monument Avenue. In addition to the focal points at the start and end of the street, monuments of Stuart at the start and of Stonewall Jackson at North Boulevard, there is the grandly scaled Lee Monument and the one of Jefferson Davis as well. Each is a focal point, each a reason to pause if not to stop. In the length of a mile, these special moments are important as reminders that we areon ‘marked, special path and we know when we have passed it. Traffic on this section of Monument Avenue moves purposeful- ly but not with great speed. For reasons not altogether understood — perhaps it’s the monuments that compel some atten- tion, perhaps it’s just the pleasantness of the drive and the not overly wide roadway — drivers seem to proceed reasonably, not speeding. On a Sunday morning in spring, the trees have already bloomed. It is quiet, but there are people using MonumentAvenue: churchgoers, joggers, cyclists, walkers, People who look like university students enter and leave apartment units watch the passersby. At various corners there are some small notices, and maybe a balloon or two. It seems that this is a route of a charity walk of some kind today, In small sroups of ten to twenty, people are walk- ing on this part of Monument Avenue, having come off one or two of the inter. Older women, at windows secting streets. In time one notices that ‘groups are walking in both directions, Thereare people ofall ages, blacks as well as whites in the same group. They pass along for several hours. There must have been good reasons for choosing Monument Avenue for their stroll Without knowing for sure, one would like to think that it represents to the larger community a special place, a most pleas ant street on which tobe. Interestingly enough, many of the best streets can anddohandle alot ofauto traffic. But, the auto isn't given priority over the other objectives and purposes, Often, these streets are not wide by today’s standards. Where they are, and certainly the rightof-way (but not the auto cartways) of Monument Avenue is Wide, there are many non-traffic things in them — sidewalks, trees that continue to the corners, medians, details — that rreduce the sense of largeness. In the end, it may be easier to design a great street, one that fits into a community, if multiple objectives are served than if we try to serve only one or two, especially ifthe one or two are traffi, ¢ Grove Avenue inthe Fon District, early in the century.