Rome to Paris to Shepherdstown?

It’s a minor gesture in a world of car-centric urban planning. St. Agnes Catholic Church continues a tradition of urban design inherited from Rome* and expressed to maximum effect in Paris. But unlike in Paris or Rome, few people have the opportunity to take notice.

St. Agnes is on axis with New Street. New Street flows one way east. St Agnes is at the end of the minor extension of New Street to the west side of South Duke Street. It is the kind of opportunity architects seek — one gesture (here, unfortunately, limited by heights and topography) which weaves a connection across space and time, tickling our memories. All this despite an architecture that many might find…problematic.

I’ll not comment on the specifics of the architecture. Aside from that axial relationship, and the effect of a single alley on one site planning gestures, little is done to save the project from amounting to any church on any site in suburban America. The forces of car-centric planning and design (parking out front, an edgeless parti, a storm-water retention pond) are simply too powerful. That few people walk up the center of New Street (look for me doing this daily) makes the gesture even more meager.

And while I praise the attention to this apparently minor detail, I can not help but acknowledge that the effort is weakened by the project planners not making a more detailed effort to work within the village framework of Shepherdstown — the village which is mere steps from the front door of the church.

Town planning guidelines address these issues in the cases of individual homes, notably prohibiting parking on the street side of new construction. I am not familiar with the entire guidelines document but I suspect it might be challenged when considering projects of a scale beyond that of the existing grid — and that, Dear Reader, will strike hard when considering further expansion of the town — in particular, just to the west of St. Agnes.

Notes:

*For one of the most famous maps ever drawn, in this case of Rome, look no further than Nolli. Don’t miss the link at the upper right, Launch Map Engine.

Matching the character of Shepherdstown

“Match the character of Shepherdstown” — I hear this phrase often. But what does it mean? Is it solely a question of architectural details and style? No. In fact, it might be less about that than one very important thing: urban character. That’s the character we should be after.

People visit Shepherdstown, choose to live in Shepherdstown for, among other things, the character and lifestyle it engenders. Other people choose to live elsewhere, presumably for similar reasons, although in what would be a very long debate, I would argue not.

As to what creates this appeal, certainly part of the character is the architecture itself. But even then, it is not a question of style in window details, it is not a question of material — be it brick or lap siding — the answer lies in how these details are applied. A window of an appropriate architectural character will not be successful if it is the wrong proportions, if it’s scale to the surface of the wall is out-of-sync.

But that’s just a view of Shepherdstown building by building. Would we feel this way about the character of the architecture if those buildings were not placed upon blocks of a certain size, with streets of a certain scale, with just the right balance of uniformity and quirks to create a pleasant street wall? With the inability to stroll down the street to the local pub/restaurant/bakery? No.

The character of Shepherdstown is defined first and foremost, not at the scale of architecture but, at the scale, and within the fabric, of the town. Any successful intervention —  be it a new building within or near that fabric, or a completely new development hoping to capture the spirit of that fabric — must heed the urban gestures that create the town.