![]() Over countless cycles of urbanization, we have come to accept gentrification as an ageless and never-ending cycle of decline and renewal. But those pursuing gentrification do not need our attention- the displaced subjects of gentrification do. When we understand that the extent of traditional urbanism is limited, we also understand that the principal role of the architect within the historical city is to serve as an agent of gentrification. ![]() Over these years, the lack of urban construction has accelerated gentrification because the traditional infrastructure that remains is a limited commodity subject to price escalations common in any finite market. ![]() We no longer construct traditional urbanism, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and have not done so for the past 70 years. Consequently, we are running out of historical urban infrastructure of continuous blocks and streets that support not only the spaces of public inclusion but the construction of a coherent city. Instead, they should work to produce an alternative to the suburban world that we have built over the past seven decades.Īrchitects and urban designers have a responsibility to acknowledge that the traditional 30 percent of the built environment is gentrifying at an extremely rapid pace. Designers should no longer be satisfied with renovating the premodern cores of our existing cities. And while reinvigorating urban cores is an important job for the architect, it distracts from another job that is of far greater urgency. As the overall expanse of the private, suburban world has steadily grown, the public urban core has been left to the yin and yang of blight and gentrification. ![]()
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