ABQ: Postcard 1950

ALBUQUERQUE

Postcard 1950


Central Ave., Route 66, in Downtown Albuquerque. The Kress sign still remains. The KIMO recently erected a new sign that is similar to the one in the postcard.

At the time of this postcard, Downtown was still the center for shopping in the city. In another decade that would change as many of the department stores left Downtown to locate in new shopping malls in the NE Heights, like Winrock Mall. They featured plenty of parking near the new housing subdivisions being built.

The abandonment of Downtown had started earlier, however, when autos allowed people to move to new neighborhoods, like areas around the university. One of the earliest auto strip malls was Nob Hill.



Winrock Mall:

In 1961, Winrock Shopping center was completed as a joint venture between soon-to-be Arkansas governor Winthrop Rockefeller and the University of New Mexico on a sandy lot at the edge of I-40. The development included a covered shopping center (the first for Albuquerque and New Mexico) with Safeway, J.C. Penney, Fedway and Montgomery Ward. A freestanding movie theater and attached motor hotel opened in 1963.

The mall was built as an outdoor shopping hub with a screened canopy roof above the main stretch of the mall and acres of parking on all sides. This design allowed for a pleasant shopping experience in the dry summer heat as well as the cold high-desert winters. The 82 acre mall site was bounded by the busy I-40 freeway to the south, with off-ramps to Louisiana Boulevard to the west.

ABQ: Barelas Garden

ALBUQUERQUE

Barelas Community Garden on Fourth Street


Community Gardens are found in neighborhoods around Downtown ABQ.

New Urban Agriculture

From Fast Company's Co.Exist:

There are few upsides to the U.S. recession that left people across the country without jobs, and in some cases, homes. But if we had to pick one good thing that emerged from the economic mess, it would be the vacant land that is now being used to create a new urban agriculture revolution. In a new report, PolicyLink highlights the projects and policies around the country that are bringing urban agriculture to lower-income communities of color--and some of the big challenges that they’re dealing with.

When done well, urban agriculture initiatives can offer access to healthy food in areas that formerly had little, provide jobs and skills development, and provide a sense of community. Getting to the point where that’s possible isn’t easy, however. Among the hurdles that nascent urban agriculture projects have to overcome: water access, land use issues, inadequate business training, and insufficient income generation.

Community Gardening

From Wikipedia:

Community gardens provide fresh produce and plants as well as satisfying labor, neighborhood improvement, sense of community and connection to the environment. They are publicly functioning in terms of ownership, access, and management, as well as typically owned in trust by local governments or not for profit associations.

Community gardens vary widely throughout the world. In North America, community gardens range from familiar "victory garden" areas where people grow small plots of vegetables, to large "greening" projects to preserve natural areas, to tiny street beautification planters on urban street corners. Some grow only flowers, others are nurtured communally and their bounty shared. There are even non-profits in many major cities that offer assistance to low-income families, children groups, and community organizations by helping them develop and grow their own gardens.

In the UK and the rest of Europe, closely related "allotment gardens" can have dozens of plots, each measuring hundreds of square meters and rented by the same family for generations. In the developing world, commonly held land for small gardens is a familiar part of the landscape, even in urban areas, where they may function as mini-truck farms.

Community gardens may help alleviate one effect of climate change, which is expected to cause a global decline in agricultural output, making fresh produce increasingly unaffordable. Community gardens encourage an urban community's food security, allowing citizens to grow their own food or for others to donate what they have grown. Advocates say locally grown food decreases a community's reliance on fossil fuels for transport of food from large agricultural areas and reduces a society's overall use of fossil fuels to drive in agricultural machinery.

Community gardens improve users’ health through increased fresh vegetable consumption and providing a venue for exercise. The gardens also combat two forms of alienation that plague modern urban life, by bringing urban gardeners closer in touch with the source of their food, and by breaking down isolation by creating a social community. Community gardens provide other social benefits, such as the sharing of food production knowledge with the wider community and safer living spaces.

Active communities experience less crime and vandalism.

 

Resources

American Community Gardening Association

Albuquerque Community Gardens

Another World is Plantable

ABQ: 4th St Ped Mall

ALBUQUERQUE

Fourth Street Pedestrian Mall

Downtown's pedestrian mall was created by closing and bricking over part of 4th Street, which was the original alignment, north and south, of Route 66 running through Albuquerque. By the time the outdoor mall was created Route 66 has been changed to run east and west on what is now Central Ave.

The pedestrian mall hasn't been very successful and the city is considering tearing it apart and reopening the street to road traffic. While some pedestrian malls, such as Denver, have been successful in lining the space with retail shops, restaurants and outdoor vendors, ABQ has not. Only a couple tables are set up regularly for street retailing and the space mostly collects homeless people.

The Hyatt wasn't built yet when the pedestrian mall was created. While the hotel restaurant has some closed-off outdoor seating, pictured above, their building was designed as a fortress against the street and public gathering was expected to take place in the central atrium indoors. In fairness to the hotel, Downtown ABQ was rather rough when the project was built.

Most of the street scape is rather barren, except for the patio seating on the south end of the mall by Central Ave. The best features of the mall are the shade trees that run down the center, which along with the tall buildings, provide welcome shade in the summer.



Pedestrian Malls:

Notes The Atlantic--American urban history is dotted with failed (and occasionally infamous) pedestrian malls. But there are success stories too, which offer lessons in designing walkable, mixed-use districts.

The world's first planned pedestrian mall was built in 1953 in Rotterdam. Six years later, Kalamazoo, Michigan, became the first American city adopt the concept. Austrian-born architect Victor Gruen (most famous for his American shopping malls) envisioned a project that would resemble Vienna's Ringstrasse. Instead, a much scaled-down concept was built in 1959.

The Kalamazoo Mall did well at first, with a fourth block added in the 1970s. But by the 1990s, it had become a sore spot for many residents. The "mall" had less parking, less weather protection, and more vagrants that the traditional shopping center. When the city decided to reopen part of the street in 1998, citizens excitedly competed, via raffle, to drive the first car down the mall.

Others have been more successful. Some of the best pedestrian malls in America are located in college towns like Charlottesville, Ithaca, Iowa City, and Madison.

ABQ: Restoration @ Route 66

ALBUQUERQUE

Middle Rio Grande Restoration Project

Study for Ecosystem Revitalization at Route 66

Crew are working on adding recreational facilities to the Tingley Ponds area of the Bosque Restoration Project along the Rio Grande. The changes include two new pedestrian bridges and two overlooks on the ponds along the paths just south of Central Ave. (Route 66) in Downtown Albuquerque.



Info about the project:

The Bosque Ecosystem Restoration Project at Route 66 is a project for the environmental revitalization of our Bosque. This area is bounded on the north by the north side of the I-40 Bridge Crossing of the Rio Grande, and at the south end at the south side of the Bridge Street Crossing.
 


Project features are being constructed just north of Central on both sides of the river and between Central and Bridge on the west side of the river. Project construction includes removal of jetty jacks and non-native vegetation across 121 acres of bosque. Non-native vegetation has been removed including salt cedar (Tamarix ramosissima), Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia), Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) and Siberian elm (Ulmus pumila). The project also includes recreating 3 high-flow channels, and enhancing one outfall wetland at the Gonzales Drain. Additional restoration features include planting of native vegetation throughout the project area (121 acres) and creation of a number of willow swales. Improvements of existing facilities for educational, interpretive and low-impact recreational uses have also been incorporated into the Route 66 Project. 

ABQ: SEFT 1

ALBUQUERQUE

SEFT 1

In the late 1990s Mexico privatized its national rail system. The system was reorganized to allow private companies to set up freight shipping connecting with the United States and Canada under NAFTA. It's too early to know whether the new arrangement is working well for rail shipments. The northern part of the country has had better success, while the hurricane damaged south is lagging behind.

However, the greatest impact of the privatization has been to end rail passenger service for most of the country. In 1997, except for some small tourist lines, such as viewing Copper Canyon, service for people ended. In 2008 a commuter rail was established running into Mexico City. But the rest of the country remains without.

Two artists decided to travel the abandoned railways to document the new ruins, isolated towns and villages, and collect artifacts. A pickup truck was created that could travel on roads or railroad tracks.

Information about the project is downloaded to their website SEFT 1.

They drove the SEFT 1 vehicle recently across the border to where it is currently on display at the Albuquerque museum. The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) also participated in the museum project.



From UTEP:

The SEFT -1 (SEFT is an acronym for the Spanish Sonda de Exploración Ferroviaria Tripulada or Manned Railway Exploration Probe) is a trans-disciplinary project by artists Ivan Puig and Andrés Padilla Domene. Its core object is a futuristic, artist-designed vehicle that is equipped to move on both land and rail. Puig and Padilla Domene traveled abandoned railways throughout Mexico in this exploratory probe, using photography, video, audio and text to record contemporary landscapes, infrastructure and inhabitants to create a futuristic exploration of Mexico’s past. The information recorded is continuously uploaded to the project´s web page www.seft1.com, where the public can follow the trajectory of the probe and view the images, videos and artifacts collected on its journey.

The exhibition of the SEFT-1 at UTEP will encompass two museums, the Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts and UTEP’s Centennial Museum. ForISEA2012 (see below), Puig and Padilla Domene will make a historic journey in the SEFT-1 that takes them from the U.S.-Mexico border to the city of Albuquerque where the car itself will be exhibited at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, with a complementary exhibition at 516 Gallery in downtown Albuquerque.

The exhibition of SEFT-1 at UTEP is in conjunction with the Desert Initiative (DI) and with the annual meeting of International for Society for Electronic Arts (ISEA).

 

DI is a consortium of art museums in the Southwest that are coordinating new, interdisciplinary explorations of the desert to take place in the Fall2012-Spring 2013. The partnering museums include Phoenix Art Museum, University of Arizona Museum of Art, Santa Fe Art Institute, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and Arizona State University Art Museum, which is the administrative and coordinating hub of the DI, amongst many others. ISEA is an international nonprofit organization fostering interdisciplinary academic discourse and exchange among culturally diverse organizations and individuals working with art, science and technology, and draws scores of emerging and established international artists to its annual conference. In 2011 it was held in Istanbul and in 2010 near Berlin. In 2012 University of New Mexico in Albuquerque will host the conference from September 17-22. UTEP is the only venue in Texas invited to participate in either of these initiatives, both of which will generate additional opportunities to expand our audience, and to connect with both the border and the world.

ABQ PLAZAS: Third Central Plaza

ALBUQUERQUE PLAZAS

Third Central Plaza

Visit the Photo Journal of Third Central Plaza.


Third Central Plaza is located, not surprisingly, at the corner of Third Street and Central Avenue in Downtown Albuquerque. Not much history is available about the building or site, although it's possibly a former graveyard.

An Odd Fellows building was located near here and apparently they used a now defunct cemetery, which was located between Central Avenue and Gold Avenue, and between Third and Fourth Streets. I'm not sure on the actual boundaries of the cemetery. I've seen this abandoned site labeled as Santa Barbara, although there is the Mt. Calvary/Santa Barbara Cemetery at 1900 Edith Blvd, which is a different graveyard. I'm not sure if the two names are being confused. The City of Albuquerque doesn't show the Railroad (Central) Ave and Third St site on their official inventory. The old Sanborn maps I've found show the area blackened out.
.......................

On the outside of the plaza is a historical marker with a photo and description, which reads:

This photograph shows the 1898 Territorial Fair Parade passing along the 300 block of Railroad (Central) Avenue. Railroad Avenue was the main thoroughfare of Albuquerque's New Town, and it linked the the railroad depot to Old Town Plaza. Railroad and Gold were the principal commercial avenues of New Town. A horse-drawn trolley system, established in 1880, ran along Railroad Avenue tracks from the depot to Old Town Plaza. This eastward view, taken only 18 years after the barren lot of the New Town site had been surveyed, shows the amazing growth of the early New Town settlement.

 

ABQ: Greater Downtown Neighborhoods

ALBUQUERQUE

Downtown Neighborhoods

Greater Downtown Albuquerque has around a dozen neighborhoods, depending on how they are defined—West Park, West Old Town, Old Town, the Downtown Neighborhoods area, Sawmill, Wells Park, McCellen Park, Santa Barbara/Martineztown, Huning Highland, South Broadway, Barelas, Raynolds Addition and Huning Castle (Country Club).

McCellen Park remains a neighborhood mostly in name, only. The area began to turn commercial with the original Route 66, which ran north/south from Santa Fe to south of Albuquerque, following the Rio Grande, in the 1920s. Downtown it ran along Fourth Street.

In the 1930s Route 66 was realigned to run east/west on what is now Central Avenue. It continued to run through McCellen Park and encouraged more commercial development. But it was the building of the freeways, I-25 and I-40, with the nearby interchange and subsequent industrial development, that seemed to end the residential appeal of the neighborhood.

Eventually the actual park, for which the neighborhood was named, was replaced by the federal courthouse. The building sits back from the street to mimic a park feeling. A controversial statue of a pioneer woman statue was moved to the side and back of the site.

The area is now mostly occupied by businesses and government buildings related to the courts. With new apartment buildings and condos being built in the core of Downtown, theorectically the neighborhood could be revived in a new form.

ABQ: Cities as a Center

ALBUQUERQUE

Cities as a Center

In the past century Downtowns have gotten a bad rap. In many mid-sized and smaller cities around the country, like Albuquerque, the central core became a dumping ground of abandoned buildings and a concentration of social services and the court system. Downtown was left to the undesirables.

Despite all the gains produced by the internet, there still is no substitution for innovation among people in face to face contact with each other. The most vibrant atmospheres are created when people exchange ideas. People need to talk with each other. This is still best accomplished in cities.

Top American cities have strong and diverse economies, a diverse set of economic anchors, world connectivity, and status as a magnet for the best and brightest of all ages. Dense cities are the greenest places in the U. S.

Cities are export entities—they exist because they provide people a way to make money. Residents of the same place buying and selling things to each other will not produce a city. Cities are born from intercity transportation—a major airport, an interstate highway line, a train link, and a port. (Improving these links is the quickest way for a city to generate economic growth.)

Main Street is the economic engine, the big stage, the core of the community.

Why does this matter?

Because cities that embrace improving their central core aren't just improving a single neighborhood. Investment into better infrastructure, improved public spaces and multiple forms of public transportation is going to bring long-term benefits to the entire region.

An ideal Downtown is the central meeting space for the entire city. Residents from all walks of life feel comfortable in the space. Which, in turn, leads to increased information exchange, the true building block for economic improvements in the twenty-first century. Innovation is shared and new ideas are incubated. Real growth is created.