CNU’s Norquist uses St. Aloysius in Presentation on Urbanism
This evening, at the APA Workshop in Kirkwood, CNU President and CEO John Norquist used a picture of St. Aloysius as a good example of how a building can terminate a vista. He had pulled the image from my site resulting from a Google search.
By a stroke of luck Norquist sat next to me on the bus trip from Kirkwood to New Town at St. Charles. On the bus ride out and back we had a chance to talk about New Urbanism, St. Louis, Milwaukee (where he served as Mayor), parking, highway construction and, one of my favorite topics, the Apple Macintosh.
Speaking with Norquist on the bus and as we walked around New Town I found him to be someone private and reserved. As we hit it off he would make observations to me about things he saw. For example, across from the sales center was a building along an alley that lacked windows on the alley side, a no-no in New Urban terms. He seemed pleased to find something to tease planner Andres Duany about. New Town’s Tim Busse acknowledged they have made a few mistakes but have quickly learned from. Norquist was clearly impressed by what he saw. I will have a full review of New Town in April.
Norquist’s opening presentation to the workshop was very inspiring, funny and spot-on. He changed from a tall but quiet man to a very outspoken speaker. He took shots at our current foreign policy as well as clearly showing the distinctions between the old sprawl patterns of old vs. the new patterns of urbanism.
Norquist related a story of a street in Milwaukee where a developer built a horrible little strip center set back from the street just after he was elected Mayor. He knew the developer and asked him why he built the building so far back from the street. The developers answer? It was what his city’s code required. From that moment he set out to change his city’s zoning to allow for urbanism.
I was so impressed by his presentation that I bought his book, The Wealth of Cities: Revitalizing the Centers of American Life. After his presentation I informed Norquist that St. Aloysius will be razed, he was shocked and miffed. “Tell them I used it in my presentation.”
– Steve
I await your review of New Town. I already wrote a few things on my blog about New Town, which are negative. I am interested to see what you think of this development.
Regarding St. Al’s: We have told “them” everything that could ever be used to defend the church buildings, and our local pols won’t listen. No doubt Norquist would be told to “go back to Milwaukee” by our aldermen. The joke might be on them, though, because Norquist might take a few locals with him!
I wonder if Norquist could have gotten much good done had Milwaukee been using the St. Louis charter while he was mayor.