La Rambla - one of the world's greatest pedestrian streets

La Rambla, which translates to 'intermittent water flow', is the iconic hub of Barcelona, a predominantly pedestrian-only plaza stretching nearly a mile through the historic center of the Spanish city.

The central area is filled with outdoor dining areas, merchant kiosks and countless strollers, bordered on either side by traffic-calmed two-lane roads for cars, which are then fronted with restaurants, stores and residences. Servers (pictured) cross the traffic lanes to cater to customers in the plaza.

What makes it one of the world's greatest pedestrian streets? Not only is it one of the longest pedestrian streets anywhere (three quarters of a mile), but it maintains an intense vibrancy all the way through. Most cities have difficulty even considering the idea for a single block.

In fact, even when La Rambla ends, the streets beyond it are packed with outdoor diners - its energy extends beyond, as most inspiring places do.

The neighborhood center for creatives in 'BAires'

With the rise of creatives and design in 'BAires' (the edgy name for Buenos Aires), especially in the neighborhood of Palermo, as described in the previous post, it would seem fitting that good design would inspire a central, identifiable gathering place to inspire creative discussion. That would be Serrano Square (pictured).

Surrounding the rather intimate square are no less than twenty restaurants, bars and clubs, all with outdoor seating. In the center of the square, local merchants provide their wares in an open market, with a children's playground in the other half of the square - an ironic site at night in the middle of thousands of people walking throughout the square. On Sundays, the retail merchants present their merchandise along the sidewalks in front of their stores. Throughout my trip to Buenos Aires, I found myself returning to Serrano Square over and over, six blocks from the subway and connected via an extensive bus network. It was the natural meeting spot for creatives - the equivalent of the neighborhood coffeehouse, but as the neighborhood square instead.

As its success and popularity continues to grow, it would seem a natural progression to allow the over-crowded outdoor tables to extend further into the street, replacing the auto-congested streets separating the diners from the square itself - perhaps similar to the pedestrian zone in Temple Bar, Dublin, Ireland.

Monocle Magazine's international cool cities guide

Shouldn't there be a multimedia magazine by now that captures cool culture, business and design from around the world? As of earlier this year, there is now a contender to take on that role, Monacle Magazine. They've teamed up with the International Herald Tribune to provide an international multimedia city guide for compelling, creative places to check out.

Some of the highlights (links to these are on the left of the online guide):

Like seemingly most everyone else, they have their 20 most livable (big international) city list, in order: Munich, Copenhagen, Zurich, Tokyo, Vienna, Helsinki, Sydney, Stockholm, Honolulu, Madrid, Melbourne, Montreal, Barcelona, Kyoto, Vancouver, Auckland, Singapore, Hamburg, Paris, Geneva.

The 25 Examples of Good Urban Design is a fun look at the details that define a city, like the bike lift profiled previously, or the open air cinemas of Athens (one of the 25 examples). Slide shows illustrate these examples, as well as the top cities, especially the top two (Munich, Copenhagen).

At the Cityscapes link, read about how individuals helped define their city going about their own business. Under Videos, one is an animated, narrated slideshow of the aforementioned examples of good urban design, and another lays out the best main street businesses from around the world to create the ideal city street in the vision of the Monocle editors (though maybe too many chains).

Finally, the highlight in my opinion is Globespotters, a crowdsourced blog of sorts with people posting photo vignettes of their experiences from around the world.

Source: Hungary JR.

The 'little urban experiences' of Buenos Aires

Looking for a little 'hands on' inspiration for a cool town? Venture south of the equator to Argentina...

Making the list of both Fast Company magazine's 30 Fastest Cities to Work, Live and Play and Travel + Leisure's World's Best Cities' to Visit is quite a feat, so what is Buenos Aires attraction? Referred to as the Paris of the South, here's a fitting local viewpoint:

"Buenos Aires is not a place for grand sights or world famous buildings**, it's more about the little urban experiences such as stumbling across a passionate tango display in the street (watched with as much appreciation, if not more, by locals as tourists), catching the purple jacaranda blooms in November, enjoying the occasional graphics and murals, trying not to notice tongue-entwined lovers on a bench while strolling a landscaped park, shopping for high quality local goods at very low prices, eating out at one of BA's sophisticated restaurants for the price you would pay for breakfast in Paris - and starting to party at 3 a.m."

On the edgier, less-traveled, culturally-enriching side...

"La Boca's (a neighborhood in 'B.A.') cobblestone streets and somewhat dilapidated yet brightly painted, multi colored tin buildings, serve as a haven for the many artists who use this area to display their excellent works. To spend a little time in the 'Caminito', the pedestrian area of La Boca, is a 'must do' and photo opportunities are a given here. Entertainment is constant and street performers are busy dancing the Tango, posing as mimes, or performing musical numbers on a variety of instruments."

Finally, from an expat...

"I find that this city doesn't simply attract creative types; it spawns them. There are plenty of former workin'-for-the-man defectors from countries around the world who choose BA for its charm, vibrancy and low cost of living, and though they might be expecting to settle into a nice little quasi-retirement, what many are finding is that they are inspired to engage in creative pursuits of all kinds. Technology, talent and tolerance... BA has these, plus tango! It's fascinating to see what expats are bringing to this equation--namely, capital, connections and confidence. It's a creative soup that is simmering with surprising flavors."

**This illustrates the point behind this rather graphic graphic's lead title posted just previously.

Krakow, Poland's Old Town Square

If the town square is the stage, then there's no bigger 'ongoing public performance' than in Europe's largest market square, the Rynek Glowny ('Grand Square') in Krakow, Poland. There's enough to see and do in and around the square for a week straight, and enough for residents to make it a large-scale third place. It's a good lesson in what a destination public square can be.

Cloth Hall, a 16th-century, Renaissance-style building, a primary attraction, houses a gallery of 19th-century art on the top floor and a market hall for local artisans on the ground floor featuring traditional Polish crafts from wood carving to amber working to felt dragon stuffing.

For modern creatives, the square is surrounded by contemporary cafes, delis, art galleries, as well as jazz clubs and museums, and is itself animated by outdoor diners, street musicians, artists, birds and wandering spectators taking it all in.

With a nod to history and thus a bit of culture, each hour a bugler plays the tune (from the tower this picture is taken) that 13th century guards used to sound the alarm when invaders approached. Once during an invasion, an arrow pierced the bugler’s throat mid-tune. To this day the buglers end the song abruptly at the same place in the song each time.

Thanks to Lauren J. of New Orleans for the reference

Image source: View from the Town Hall Tower by karlakp.

'The happiest people in the world'

...live in Copenhagen, Denmark, say the polls. Continuing our series of looking at European cities as resources for cool, here are more things about this Danish city you may not be aware of:

- As stated previously, 62.5% of its employees are in knowledge-based jobs, the highest in Europe.
- 32.5% of its residents have an academic degree, more than 80% speak English (and speak it well!).
- It is known as Europe's leading biotech and medical research location, with a new Biotech Research Innovation Center expected to compete with MIT.
- The Copenhagen region is far and away Europe's leader in patents.
- The city is also on top in international studies on competitiveness, quality of life and recreational value.
- It's reputation in magazines is as a 'cool, cultural and creative' 'trend destination'.
- 90% of its businesses are run by self-employed entrepreneurs.
- It's gaining international recognition for fashion, film and music.

Of course, none of this is possible if Copenhagen didn't have some of the most beautiful, pedestrian-oriented urban fabric in the world.

Read more in the German news site, Spiegel.

The quintessential internet city? Tallinn, Estonia

Where?!!! That's probably a fairly common reaction. Located south of Finland and bordering west of Russia, this fast-growing city of 400,000 enjoy life on the fast lane as far as the internet goes, but it's key to success is being able to maintain life its enviable slow city, slow food culture.

Summarizing Tallinn's profile in Spiegel as part of its Coolest Cities story:

The internet is essentially free throughout what is known as the most-wired country in Eastern Europe, with the government committing to providing free internet access as a basic right. The city even has a name for their mission to wire the entire country, 'tiigrihüppe' (tiger leap). As a result, since gaining their independence in 1991, Tallinn is:



- reputed as the "Hong Kong of the Baltics";
- one of the seven most intelligent cities in the world";
- referred to as the "boom town of the new Europe";
- listed as one of the The 30 Fastest Cities to Work, Live and Play.
- serving as a gateway between eastern and western Europe.

90% of bank transactions are online, citizens vote for their government leaders online, all schools are online... meanwhile, citywide wi-fi plans are falling through in major U.S. cities. C'mon now.

It's no coincidence that such a modern knowledge economy network and dedication to its usage has indirectly resulted in Skype locating their research division in Tallinn; the town's programmers are in demand globally, and the city sponsoring an alternative hangout in a renovated factory for artists and 'grunge parties'.

As stated just previously via Spiegel's review of Europe's Coolest Cities, an impressive 43.9% of Barcelona's workforce is represented by the creative class.

Via the google earth image, you can see the cultural amenities centered in the historic pedestrian district and the fruits of the 1992 Olympics on the far right. Notice how transportation takes up increasingly more real estate each year, from a miniscule amount in the historic core, to its surrounding neighborhoods directly north, to the 20th century toward the east. Not surprisingly, the cultural center is in the most walkable part of the city, highlighted by La Rambla - a continuous street that behaves as what seems like a never ending public square of merchants by day and outdoor diners by night.

Such creativity drives a progressive agenda, such as the 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures, a world expo for peace, human rights, sustainable development and diversity where mundane utility buildings were redesigned as hip new environmentally friendly structures, one of which has become a new Barcelona landmark.

Creativity and progressiveness in turn drive the economy. One transformational knowledge-based undertaking is the 22@Barcelona (why it's called that, it'd be nice if someone commented below), 500 acres of industrial urban area that's being redeveloped into a world-class creative class district based on media, IT, communications, energy and biomedicine, resulting in 150,000 new growth-based jobs. Here's hoping it passes the postcard test.

Thanks to Mike Lydon of DPZ & Company for the reference.

'An Inside Look at Europe's Coolest Cities'

You've seen lots of rankings of cool cities based on opinions, but the city of Hamburg, Germany took it a little more seriously on behalf of their own cause and hired a firm to find out just which of the European cities were indeed the coolest and the best at attracting the creative class, now and in the future. Here's their list of the top five, profiled in Spiegel, leading European news site:

Copenhagen This beautiful, progressive city enjoys a GDP of $76,000/capita and population growth of 3.1% thanks to lots of new patents and knowledge economy workers (62.5%), a high portion of Denmark's students (11.6%) compared to its total population, $370 million in venture capital for startups, and tax breaks for research investment.

Barcelona is a city on the rise, long popular with creatives and a reputation for tolerance. It's GDP/capita is only $31,000, but it's popularity is increasing. Polish engineers consistently named Barcelona as the city they'd move to, and the creative classes make up a whopping 43.9% of all workers.

Dublin It's no surprise Dublin has a GDP of $66,000/capita with 7% population growth given that Ireland is the second largest software exporter in the world after the U.S. and its median age downtown is something like 25, though with a modest 36.9% creative class population. It's also profiting from newly joining the European Union.

Amsterdam Everyone knows Amsterdam (top image) is synonymous with 'tolerance', and that's a huge draw for creatives, which amount to an amazing 47.1% of the workforce, translating to a GDP per capita of $66,000 with 5.6% population growth in the cosmopolitan mecca.

Vienna's per capita GDP is $55,000, but it only has 0.4% growth as it's still transitioning from the fall of communism. It has a bright outlook with the Richard Florida three T's of talent, technology and tolerance with 42% of its workforce in the creative class. However, Spiegel decided to replace Vienna in the top five with...

Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn residents are vastly internet savvy, in large part since internet access costs residents almost nothing. With its beautiful urban fabric (lower two images), that adds up to a pretty powerful magnet for creatives and entrepreneurial growth.

Thanks to Braulio Agnese of Architect Magazine for the reference.

How South Beach became popular (before it became too popular)

Today South Beach, Miami FL is no longer known as a place where you go out to see your friends, but a place to go with your friends to see and be seen, where you're not fixated on the persons at your dining table, but at who may walk in at any moment.

However, before it become such a Hollywood-oriented mecca, how did it go from a district of decaying buildings and drug dealers in the 1970s to a place desirable by the most creative in the industry, the host for one of the largest art festivals in the world, Art Basel?

As with so many of these stories, it started with an extraordinary person. In 1979, a woman named Barbara Capitman made it a personal mission to preserve the deteriorating art deco buildings as nationally historic structures, and succeeded. Once they were officially recognized as treasures, artists began painting them in the brilliant colors you see today, inhabiting many of the spaces, followed by visionary developers like Tony Goldman who saw the potential in transforming them into truly desirable retail and entertainment destinations and homes. Says Goldman, "On Ocean Drive, the vision was a promenade for cafe life. Those of us who were working on it were very clear we had to keep The Gap out. This couldn't be any old street anywhere in the country.'' Pretty much sums up its path to desirability by the cool and creative right there.

The district became such an artistic haven that celebrity photographers insisted having their shoots there, followed by the celebrities, followed by much of the current population described in the very first sentence. At least it's still photogenic.

Read more about its history here in the Miami Herald.