In response to the Atlantic Cities post by Mark Byrnes from last week (shown below) about building patterns in Memphis, we asked Josh Whitehead, planning director for Memphis and Shelby County, and Jonathan Flynt of Looney Ricks Kiss for their observations and reactions. We invite you to join in the conversation.

Here’s what Josh wrote:

While Mr. Byrne’s observations of our downtown are astute and, for the most part, on the mark, I would like to provide some hometown perspective. True, Memphis’ downtown is fairly small and oddly narrow for a metropolitan area of 1 million+ individuals, but what remains of its urban form is nothing short of miraculous considering it is essentially at the edge of the metropolis.

While the center of population has gradually moved further and further to the east, which has propelled the Poplar corridor as the de facto Central Business District, downtown Memphis has somehow reinvented itself to become a 24-hour urban neighborhood, complete with a residential component found in few other cities of our size. This happened in spite of the natural impediments of the Mississippi River and its tributaries on the north and south sides of town that created our unique, east-only development pattern. In fact, I can think of only two other American cities that developed to such a lopsided degree as ours: Jackson, Tennessee and Middletown, Ohio (search for these cities on Google maps and you will see what I mean).

And let’s be honest, most cities and their downtowns are not like Portland and Baltimore. Think of your visits to most of the downtowns between the two coasts and then check out photos of those cities from the 1950s or before. The effect that post-war suburbanization had on downtown and inner-city Birmingham, St. Louis and Detroit, for instance, is nothing short of a national tragedy. So, while it is true, as Mr. Byrne writes, that we have a long way to go in improving our urban core, I am confident that we can rise to the occasion. Partly because the new economic world dictates it. Partly because we are half way there.

Here are Jonathan’s comments:

On the surface, Mark Byrnes’s analysis of the city’s urban core and its comparison with its past is straightforward and seems to be spot on. Hidden deeper within these observations are the cause and effect that created downtown as we know it today. A city whose economic development has hinged on logistics naturally translates into a focus on warehouses, intermodal yards, river ports and airport hubs, none of which require a dense, healthy urban core.

Thus, while our collective efforts have been focused on shipping freight, downtown Memphis has been adrift. Instead of focusing to enhance what made downtown different from any other neighborhood in the city and the region, we tried to make it competitive with the suburbs by introducing elements such as the un-freeway that is Danny Thomas and early residential infill that belongs on Riverdale, not Jefferson. We closed streets to speed traffic and created cul-de-sacs in place of rebuilding sidewalks and new avenues across scattered super blocks. We allowed bulldozers to clear block after block in the name of convenient parking for the Pyramid and thus lost much of the potential inherent in both the arena and the Pinch. We have spent hundreds of millions to construct parking garages while the streets that service them crumbled and public transit limps on as a financial third class citizen.

We have rewarded greenfield developments across the county with new infrastructure and improvements while properties downtown depend on a crumbling public realm patched together with sweat, bubble-gum and the occasional sidewalk planter. We’ve built themed attractions and then left them to languish, built pedestrian malls to compete with suburban shopping palaces, built useless lawns because that is what one sees in East Memphis and created fields of parking to a scale that could rival any big box on Germantown Parkway.

We have nearly killed the patient in our efforts to “save” it. We should learn from Byrnes’s observation that remaking downtown in the image of the suburbs is a useless and expensive exercise. Why create what we already have in excess around us in every direction? What Mark Byrnes notes is over many decades we have yet to embrace downtown’s most unique asset – it is urban and thus like no other area of the city. He also notes that the foundation is still very much present. A lively entertainment district, existing parks & public spaces as well as the ability to create new ones; a street grid that has not completely eroded and enough land sitting idly as fields or parking to support the urban center we all want and need. Is it not time for us as a city to truly embrace the one space and neighborhood that belongs to all of us?

By Mark Byrnes. Article posted from The Atlantic Cities.

The latter half of the 19th century was a big era for Memphis, Tennessee. Located along the Mississippi at a relatively high elevation, its nearly flood-proof geography made it an important transportation hub, particularly for the slave trade. Besides the river access, it boasted the only east-west railroad in the Confederate States at the time of the Civil War.

The Union claimed Memphis back quickly in 1862 and used it as a supply base. In the 1870s, multiple yellow fever outbreaks consumed the city, killing many and forcing others to flee. By the end of the decade, the tax base became so depleted that the city could not pay its municipal bonds. It ceased to be a city in 1878, only regaining its charter in 1893.

We decided to pull sections from this 1887 map to see how much has changed in Memphis’ downtown since those hectic times. Today, the city is still a key transportation hub, hosting the world’s second busiest cargo airport and a series of interstates in addition to its railroad and river access.

As transportation methods improved, steamboats became less common along the Mississippi. On the bottom left, we see the tail end of “Mud Island”, a peninsula that was developed in the early 1980s.

Facing Mud Island is one of the more iconic structures in Memphis, The Pyramid. Built in 1991, it is already seen as obsolete and has seen many redevelopment ideas fail to materialize. Bass Pro Shops is currently targeting it for a new store. 125 years ago, the site served as a rail terminus, allowing goods to come to and from the Mississippi River.

The FedEx Forum is mostly responsible for The Pyramid’s demise. This arena hosts the city’s NBA team and most large events. Despite its size and parking demands, its disturbance to the city’s street grid is minimal. Steps from the famous Beale Street, a vibrant entertainment district has been established. Compared with the 1887 image, you can tell this section of the city has historically maintained its density over time.

This section of downtown, previously dominated by rail infrastructure and related services has none remaining besides a streetcar route. Since its busier days, a collection of isolated housing projects have formed that fail to integrate themselves into the city’s street grid. A pseudo-Corbusien elevated pedestrian area can be seen in the center of the current-era image.

Court Square has remained a constant over time. It still serves as a simple and inviting public space in the center of its historic downtown.

Sandwiched in-between two imposing late-modernist structures rests a Trinity Lutheran church. An odd mix that adds to Memphis’ consistently inconsistent building patterns.

Directly north of Interstate 40, Memphis becomes a collection of surface lots and an unexpected, no-frills collection of art-related facilities and restaurants. Despite its hidden gems, this area fails to match up to the vibrant collection of structures it once hosted.

Even as a mid-sized market, Memphis’ downtown and inner city is unexpectedly small and lacking in density. The central business district has retained much of its building stock and has slowly built up over time. But as you move north, south, east or west, the change is dramatic.

Much of the city’s downtown has evolved into an unpredictable hodgepodge of surface lots and low-density residential developments (a surprising proportion of it public housing). Memphis has maintained its economic importance thanks to its transportation infrastructure but its growth has failed to improve the urban condition of its core.

history Arts & Entertainment, Memphis Living