Michael E. Arth
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Michael E. Arth, born on April 27, 1953, is an American artist, home/landscape/urban designer, futurist, and author.
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[edit] Art
Michael E. Arth has worked with a wide range of media; From rock concert posters in the early 1970s, to original prints like etchings, serigraphs, and lithographs, to paintings, and photography. A large format book of his work, Michael E. Arth: Introspective 1972-1982, was published in 1983.[1] He shifted focus in 1986 to home and urban design.
[edit] Building and urban design
Arth designed, built, and landscaped a small number of private residences in Southern California from 1986 to 2000, most notably "Casa de Lila," a seven-story Spanish style villa integrated into a mountain ridge in the Hollywood Hills.
In 1999, Arth founded a more pedestrian and ecology-oriented version of New Urbanism called New Pedestrianism. [2] His new approach calls for very compact new towns and neighborhoods where tree-shaded, pedestrian and bike lanes are in front of all residences and businesses, with tree-lined automobile streets at the rear. While this idea is not entirely original (examples of rear loading garages with front sidewalks that replace streets were built in Naples, California, as early as 1910), his fervent emphasis on this as a panacea makes his work distinctive.
Arth claims that living in what he calls a "Pedestrian Village", coupled with a compact, mixed-use neighborhood or village center, will ameliorate a wide range of problems related to urban living. Having such a development built near a downtown area reduces the amount of travel time that would normally be spent in an automobile, thus increasing the physical activity of the homeowner and decreasing dollars spent on car maintenance and fuel. In more densely built new towns or developments, he claims that this new form of housing would greatly reduce the dependency on the automobile and the resulting village-like towns would vastly increase both aesthetics and quality of life. He also promotes the creation of similar pedestrian amenities that can be retrofitted to existing towns. Arth's design and development company, Pedestrian Villages Inc., develops projects that follow the principles of New Pedestrianism.[2]
[edit] The Garden District
In 2000, while working on a book and documentary, "The Labors of Hercules: Modern Solutions to 12 Herculean Problems," Arth found a small slum in DeLand, Florida, where he could try out some of his ideas. Subsequently, he purchased thirty dilapidated homes and businesses, which he restored over a six-year period. Running out the drug dealers and rebuilding the downtown neighborhood won him the support of the community and a number of awards. He changed the name of "Crack Town" to Downtown DeLand's Historic Garden District. Arth enhanced the existing infrastructure by planting trees and by building pedestrian lanes, gardens, courtyards, and bike facilities in the district.[3]
In 2004, Arth designed and began securing local planning approval of a major mixed-use development in the Garden District that exemplifies the major tenets of New Pedestrianism. "The Palm Garden" will consist of twenty-eight shops and restaurants and a health facility overlooking a sunken tropical garden complete with swimming pools and waterfalls - all on a car free promenade. Fifty-two residences are proposed above the retail space. Across the street, the "Palm Garden Cottages," currently in development, will consist of twelve houses facing a pedestrian lane with a garden and community pool house. The garages are located at the rear on an automobile street with the houses overlooking a tree-lined, car-free pedestrian lane in front, according to NP principles.[4]
[edit] References
- [1] Michael E. Arth (1983). Michael E. Arth Introspective 1972-1982. Linnea Graphics. ISBN 0-912467-00-2.
- [2] J.H. Crawford. CarFree Cities. International Books, Utrecht, Holland, 2000. ISBN 90-5727-037-4.
- [3] Carolanne Griffith Roberts, "Saving a Neighborhood", Southern Living Magazine, April 2004, Florida Living pp. 22-25.
- [4] Article about Pedestrian Villages
