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INSIDE TG+P
INSIDE TG+P
We believe in letting our work speak for itself, and with more than 70 years of experience, Torti Gallas + Partners has a lot to say. But we find that listening is the most important part of any project.
Browse through our design portfolio to gain a better understanding of the transformative work Torti Gallas + Partners does. We’ve organized our portfolio by project type.
Creating the right places starts with having the right people in place. Our designers, architects, planners, and community liaisons bring a multidisciplinary approach to placemaking, because we know that the how and the why are just as important as the what and the where.
It’s relatively easy to design a basic physical structure. Designing buildings and places that promote balanced and sustainable progress, on the other hand, is a lot more challenging. When our clients want to build something that stands the test of time…a place with a soul, they rely on Torti Gallas + Partners and our 70+ years of expertise.
We believe in letting our work speak for itself, and with more than 70 years of experience, Torti Gallas + Partners has a lot to say. But we find that listening is the most important part of any project.
John Torti interviewed for the Australian publication Bluenotes!
John Torti was recently
asked to respond to a question from JP Pelosi, a journalist in Sydney,
Australia who is writing an architectural article for a well known business
publication there called Bluenotes.
The article is about skyscrapers and how that type of residential design seems
to have taken over cities across Asia-Pac, especially in Melbourne and Sydney. Mr.
Pelosi is trying to establish that while these buildings boast plenty of modern
styles, amenities and technology, they can also create an imposing cityscape
where it's perhaps sometimes not needed.
John was asked: “Can smaller, more
considered and sustainable apartment buildings become the norm in big cities,
or does the 'bigger is better' idea usually trump smaller designs? And, if so, why?” His response follows.
“Your question is a seminal question in the design of cities. As Leon Krier
states, ‘buildings can be of any height, as long as they are only three stories’.
To me it is a question of
appropriateness. Certain places like Hong Kong and Vancouver, essentially
limited by their geography have developed as vital high-rise cities. Clearly,
Manhattan is noted for its skyscrapers which occupy only a small portion of the
city. So if a city “needs” to have its symbol of economic power in the form of
the mighty obelisk, so be it.
To me, this is a game of
national marketing not a methodology of making good neighborhoods, which, in
turn, make great cities. Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Melbourne, and Washington, DC,
are a small list of beautiful, livable cities that historically have not had
tall buildings. One might say that these are cities at human scale that range
from 2 to 12 stories and are great walkable places. If you believe, as I do,
that the walkable city is a good idea, you understand that a balanced mix of
uses can accommodate from 1,200 people at the 2-story VILLAGE scale to 35,000
people at the 12-story CITY scale FOR EACH 1/4 MILE RADIUS NEIGHBORHOOD or 125
ACRES. A working definition of a walkable neighborhood is 1/4 mile in radius or
a 5-minute walk from center to edge.
There are too many great
examples to deny this. We here in the US, the land of sprawl, are now
learning how to densify our existing suburbs without using Greenfield land. Most
of this work is, I am happy to say, transit oriented, between 4 and 8 stories,
mixed use, walkable and on heretofore underutilized land (parking lots, fallow
ROW’s, defunct single story retail and institutional land that was not
used).
JP, in
addition to the smaller increment of development, which allows for better scale
and grain of neighborhoods, this type of place fits the classical notion of the
innate relation to the human scale and psyche. People feel better, are attracted
to, and, are just happier in places in which they are comfortable.”