The Perils of Waterfront Development

Guy Julier, designer and professor, talks about a number of design issues related to cities, including a detailed look at the pitfalls of waterfront development.

1 minute read

October 9, 2009, 9:00 AM PDT

By Tim Halbur

Julier was interviewed by Alex Gilks in New Zealand.

"The thing is, waterfront developments create problems in all kinds of ways, and they may look fine in themselves, but they run the danger of draining capital and resources (both private and public resources) from the rest of wherever the place is. That has happened to some degree in many places such as Cardiff. The second thing is that they basically replicate models of all other waterfront developments around the world, and waterfront developments have been around for a good 20-25 years now. They started off in America in the 1980s, particularly in Boston. You've got this gatey community effect as well, because often a waterfront development is looking away from a city and looking out to sea. And you've got then this problem of connectivity between the main part of a city and this waterfront development and so on. It's a very delicate thing."

FULL STORY: Interview: Guy Julier

Thursday, October 8, 2009 in ProDesign

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