1. Urban Information Modeling Reflections on the Urban Systems Collaborative Chicago Workshop April 19, 2012

2. One way of looking at cities: Cities are the spatial and infrastructural context in which people come together to engage in transactions with one another for a wide variety of reasons (i.e. social, civic, cultural, commercial, institutional, etc)… The underlying currency that gives rise to these transactions is information.

3. Can a better understanding of the flows of urban information lead to better cities?

4. The Chicago experiment: A map of information flows.

5. The developer (Magellan) • The urban designer (SOM) • A key City agency (DHED) • A local community group (the Grant Park Conservancy) Lakeshore East Development, Chicago, IL

6. Questions for Participants to Consider What is the role of your group in this type of development project? What information/ data do you need to fulfill your role at various points in the process? What information/ data does your group generate and how? How much of that information is shared with others? What information are you not able to share? Do you think any of the unshared data would be of value to anyone else? What type of information (that is currently difficult to access) would be of great value to your group? How does your group attempt to validate the quality of the information/ data that was generated and shared by your group?

7. The Flow Diagrams

8. The Players DECISION MAKERS CIVIL ENGINEERS SUSTAINABILITY Urban Designer (SOM) CLIENT CITY AGENCY OR DEVELOPER TRANSPORTATION SMART TECHNOLOGY CITY AGENCIES ECONOMISTS LANDSCAPE ARCH. DEVELOPERS MASTER PLANNER ECOLOGISTS ARCHITECTS COMMUNITY

9. Urban Development Process Urban Designer (SOM) CONCEPTION MASTER PLAN APPROVALS LAND SALES / DEVELOPMENT INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT OCCUPANCY Master Plan Process PLANNING GOALS & PRINCIPLES DESIGN GUIDELINES MASTER PLAN SITE ANALYSIS CONCEPTUAL MASTER PLAN

10. Master Plan Process Urban Designer (SOM) PLANNING GOALS & PRINCIPLES DESIGN GUIDELINES MASTER PLAN ANALYSIS CONCEPTUAL MASTER PLAN

11. Master Plan Process Urban Designer (SOM) PLANNING GOALS & PRINCIPLES DESIGN GUIDELINES MASTER PLAN ANALYSIS CONCEPTUAL MASTER PLAN Existing site conditions Infrastructure Environmental Program / land use Past planning initiatives Neighborhood / community initiatives Regional coordination

12. Master Plan Process Urban Designer (SOM) PLANNING GOALS & PRINCIPLES DESIGN GUIDELINES MASTER PLAN ANALYSIS CONCEPTUAL MASTER PLAN Accessibility Sustainability Diversity Open Space Compatibility Density Identity Phasing

13. Master Plan Process Urban Designer (SOM) PLANNING GOALS & PRINCIPLES DESIGN GUIDELINES MASTER PLAN ANALYSIS CONCEPTUAL MASTER PLAN Physical development framework Land use strategy Streets and circulation Transit Open Space / Natural Systems Recreation / Amenity Infrastructure / Utilities Hieght, Density and Urban Form Phasing / Implementation

14. Master Plan Process Urban Designer (SOM) PLANNING GOALS & PRINCIPLES DESIGN GUIDELINES MASTER PLAN ANALYSIS CONCEPTUAL MASTER PLAN Parcelization Public rights-of-way Utilities and easements Parks and open space Vehicular and pedestrian circulation Land Use and Density Building Height and Massing Phasing / Implementation

15. Master Plan Process Urban Designer (SOM) PLANNING GOALS & PRINCIPLES DESIGN GUIDELINES MASTER PLAN ANALYSIS CONCEPTUAL MASTER PLAN • Parcels • Buildings • Height • Materials • Elements • Public Spaces • Landscape • Streets • Infrastructure

16. City Agency (DHED)

17. Where community process starts is project specific Community Group (Grant Park Conservancy)

18. Developer

19. Some Take-Aways • In general, people are not accustomed to describing what they do in terms of the steps of a process. • People are even less accustomed to thinking about information in a tangible way, especially as inputs and outputs of those processes. • In general, everybody wants as much information as possible, as early in the process as possible (but there are valid reasons why this doesn’t always happen). • There are few yardsticks of “success”. • The discussion about the participation of the community (citizen engagement) led to some of the more interesting questions. • What are the limits of the community’s right to information about a private development? • How does the community group leadership gain credibility amongst the community it represents? • How can a community engage effectively in a design process? • Bob Schloss from IBM shared some insights into the urban semantic modeling work that his team is developing. • There is still work to be done to find an effective convention for capturing this idea of a map of information flows…