New Urbanism and Worcester
by Joseph P. Reidy, partner, Maurice F. Reidy & Co.
A lot of what's being written and said about 'new urbanism' deals with the theoretical rather than with practical approaches to making old cities work. This debate is happening at a fortunate time for Worcester, but the successful realization of any new scheme will have to be both creative and conceived with a sound knowledge of Worcester's past.
For example, the lack of any lasting success of either incarnation of Worcester Centre can be attributable to having to pay for parking. Store rents cover parking costs at malls, why not downtown? The answer is that spaces would be taken up with all-day business parking and not short-term shoppers. This is where the creativity is needed.
Barcelona, Spain's second largest city, suffered from an acute shortage of parking. The city constructed a network of underground parking garages beneath its broad boulevards and required all new buildings and conversions to provide twice as many parking spaces as would be used by residents; so an apartment unit where that might need two spaces would have to be provided with four. The result was that even during the Olympic games, the large underground garages were never full.
In Worcester, with rising office occupancy rates, it could be argued that as far as parking spaces go, it's a seller's market. While the trend in office rental in the CBD is upward, it can't be relied upon to remain so, especially if businesses face higher taxation rates.
Visible Challenges
There are a number of highly visible properties in Worcester for which especially creative thought is needed, and given the right solution(s), they could pave the way for a city center that becomes a national model for practical new urbanism. The Worcester Center, the Memorial Auditorium and Union Station are all major building complexes that are not being utilized to their full potential. Together their construction spans half a century, and each has outlived the purpose for which it was built.
The first obvious choice is whether to retain such buildings at all. The choice for Union Station has already been made, but does that experience make the preservation or renovation of the other two more viable?
One possibility draws upon another European practice: the mixed use of buildings for retail, office and residential purposes. Zoning regulations building codes have been formulated to enable all three uses to take place in the same building. While retail units are seldom found above the second floor in all but skyscrapers, it is not unusual to find offices next to apartments.
The experience is that offices that generate low traffic and don't operate machinery heavier than a photocopier can comfortably occupy the same premises. The very presence of people in the building 24 hours a day contributes to its security. The retail units, including cafés, bookshops, drug stores, restaurants, etc., remain open to take advantage of the resident traffic, while at the same time attracting other people to the area.
Mayor Murray seems to favor imaginative thinking, and there are still a number of former industrial buildings in Worcester's CBD that would lend themselves to mixed usage. It's an experiment that wouldn't cost a lot to try, and free parking is bound to be a vote winner.