CoolTown Wiki

index

2009-01-04T22:21:19-05:00

Welcome to the CoolTown Wiki!

This is the place to list ‘cooltown worthy’ places and events happening around the world. Just click on ‘Edit’ and start editing! It’s the same registration as adding comments to the blog posts, and you never have to log out either. You can start with: Crowdsourced Places and Cool Places.

Below, we’ll post a current topic that people are free to edit, and once it achieves a certain level of completion, we’ll find a permanent home for it on this wiki site.

Proscriptive Code for a Natural Cultural District

- The buildings and streets will be environmentally-conscious. That means less of a priority for driving and parking.

A. There are no more than two lanes for cars in commercial streets within the district (two in one direction, or one in each direction). Any wider, and the two sides of the street are disconnected from each other. Four-lane and wider streets exist only on the periphery, as an outer boundary.

B. There may be parallel parking on both sides of a commercial street, or angle parking on one side only.

C. Surface parking lots may not constitute more than 7 percent of the district’s area.

D. Residential buildings within one-half mile of a rapid transit stop or one-quarter mile of a bus stop should not contain parking.

- Public spaces (as shown above) will be primary focal points, like portals on the internet where people gather.

- People are increasingly embracing and thriving in diversity, and that means a greater variety of places and spaces, homes and workplaces.

A. No building should be taller than four stories or the width of the street it faces (including adjacent sidewalks), whichever is less.

- Authenticity has returned as a primary value, and that translates to more local businesses and human-scaled buildings.

A. No building may be constructed with a windowless wall facing a primary commercial street.
(1). Any windowless wall facing any thoroughfare must be covered with a mural or other public art.

- Public health is as big a concern as ever, with more emphasis on walking and biking.

A. Bike lanes are consistently striped.

- People will be looking to connect to their friends more often, more spontaneously, like on Facebook, but in person.

List more!

Proscriptive Code

2008-12-31T14:59:33-05:00

A template for defining prescriptive rules (Prescriptive Code), a pattern for a rule.

Cities today use ‘prescriptive’ codes, but what came before that?
A city’s DNA - proscriptive codes
Proscriptive code for creatives’ dream town?

prescriptive code

2008-12-31T14:58:12-05:00

A rule that defines in detail what to do in a given situation. For cities, examples of prescriptive codes include maximum/minimum street widths, building heights, building volumes, building setbacks, and parking ratios.

Natural Cultural District

2008-12-30T23:32:11-05:00

Professor Mark Stern, Co-Director of the Urban Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania, defines natural cultural districts:

“A natural cultural district is a geographically-defined social network created by the presence of a density of cultural assets in a particular neighborhood. Descriptively, a “natural” cultural district simply identifies a neighborhood that has naturally, organically spawned a density of unique cultural assets - organizations, businesses, participants, and artists - that sets it apart from other neighborhoods.

While the arts are commerce, they revitalize cities not through their bottom-line but through their social role. The arts build ties that bind - neighbor-to-neighbor and community-to-community. It is these social networks that translate cultural vitality into economic dynamism.

Culture generates many types of social networks. When artists work with eight or nine different organizations during the year - as many do, they build networks. When community residents are involved in arts programs as well as churches, civic associations, and book clubs, they build networks. When a community development organization reaches out simultaneously to downtown financial institutions and local residents, it builds a network.

Analytically, these districts are of interest because of density’s side-effects. Economic developers note that clusters encourage innovation and creativity - a spur to cultural production. At the same time, a cluster of cultural assets often pushes a neighborhood to a regeneration tipping-point, attracting new services and residents.

What is striking about this phenomenon is that it occurs without policy intent.“

Read more in Mark’s paper, Cultivating “Natural” Cultural Districts.

ECLAU

2008-12-07T22:38:08-05:00

Lots of desks for the periods of hard work, a sofa-mattress-armchair corner for the creative moments, a dining room turned into a meeting room, an office cat…

External link: eclau.ch

Category:Coworking

Coworking Directory

2008-12-07T22:22:59-05:00

Lausanne, switzerland
ECLAU

Washington DC
Affinity Lab

Category:Coworking

Third Places

2008-11-24T17:15:37-05:00

Washington DC
The Diner
Tryst
Elements

Category:Cool Places

Affinity Lab

2008-11-24T00:06:37-05:00

Affinity Lab is a coworking site in Adams Morgan featuring 11 full-time desks, a few shared workplace tables, a conference room, kitchen and lounging area.

A group of entrepreneurs moving from New York City were drawn by the active scene surrounding in Adams Morgan. They came across more office space than they needed, so they began subletting the space to other young creative entrepreneurs. “We even joked about having a dumb waiter installed so that entrepreneurs (or even just our company) could easily order food. We thought of both The Diner and Tryst (two doors down) as alternative meeting spots as well as places to blow off steam and get out of the office,“ says Berit Oskey, one of the founding partners.

A kitchen, a living room, a conference room with a view, a copier/fax, high-speed internet, and all-day-Friday disco ball (see image) come with the workplace investment, ranging from $225-$995/mo.

External link: www.affinitylab.com

Category:Coworking

2008-11-24T00:03:58-05:00

Tryst

2008-11-23T23:59:08-05:00

Tryst is a coffeehouse in the bohemian neighborhood of Adams Morgan, Washington DC, and viewed as the quintessential third place in the city. The place provides free wifi, lots of big comfortable chairs and couches for those who want relaxed conversation or plan to stay a while; a communal table for those who want to strike up spontaneous dialogue or collaborate on work projects; lots of small tables near the front for more intimate conversation and dining; or seating at the bar. You can sit in the back where it’s more private, or right on the street if you like the scenery; browse a menu in your hand or a giant handwritten blackboard listing coffees, teas, chais and smoothies along with a collection of sandwiches, pastries and waffles; order at the counter or be served. There’s the bulletin board, local revolving art on the walls and annual New Year’s slumber party.

Interesting facts:
It’s constantly full, much more so than the Starbucks less than one block away, and also the starting point for the Affinity Lab.

External link: Tryst

Category:Third Places