THE DESIGN OF THE HIGHWAY 187 



However, freeway design must find other solutions when in- 

 serted into older sections of densely built up, valuable urban cores 

 where land values are high, where existing architectural and urban 

 values are important to preserve, and where residential and com- 

 mercial areas will be disrupted. 



Here are a few of the major points which I consider important 

 in the design of urban freeways. 



1. The sinuous, curvilinear pattern of country freeways is inappro- 

 priate in the city. It cuts across the existing grid, disrupts neigh- 

 borhood patterns and leaves odd, difficult-to-integrate pieces. Urban 

 freeways should follow the grid of the city. 



2. The wide right-of-way, with variable median strips and planted 

 verges and shoulders, is inappropriate in cities because it wreaks 

 havoc with existing structures, takes too much land off the tax rolls 

 and separates neighborhoods by great swaths cut through a city's 

 fabric. 



3. Urban freeways should fit into existing and projected land-use 

 and topographic patterns in a city. They should go between neigh- 

 borhoods, not through them, or they should go between two different 

 land uses, such as industrial and residential, or utilize topographic 

 changes by sliding along below hills where they cannot be seen. 



4. Urban freeways should be condensed and concentrated, not 

 spread out. They should employ urban, not country aesthetics. Ac- 

 cordingly, they must use multilevel, split-level, depressed, and ele- 

 vated groupings to facilitate concentration of the road bed. As 

 a byproduct, connections across freeways, from one side to the other, 

 become much easier to achieve. 



The objection to elevated freeways is, in large measure, I have 

 observed, due to the environment under them, which is usually ugly 

 and unpleasant, devoted to parking lots, bus storage and cyclone 

 fences, and is not the elevated structure itself. The largest single 

 problem in condensation is interchanges, some of which may have 

 to go underground or be designed as parks. 



5. Urban freeways should be integrated with the city and not 

 simply be a corridor through it. They should pass through buildings, 

 have shops built with them and other structures such as restaurants 

 and parking garages, integrated into their structure. 



6. Freeways should be built as part of a total community develop- 

 ment, not unilaterally. If a freeway must pass through a city, its 

 design and construction must involve the total environmental rede- 

 velopment of the area through which it passes. To this end many 



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