Spanish Smack-down: Urban Planning!

December 9, 2013 at 3:28 pm  •  Posted in architecture, Education, Learnings, Spain by

Last summer, I attended Leadership+Design, an extremely edifying weeklong program centered around leading and, wait for it, designing. Each year, L+D picks one problem pertaining to the local community and pawns it off on the campers. Making it our responsibility to clean up a communal mess in two weeks time: that’s what I call, “the power of delegation!” This year, the camp took place in a full-blown hipster studio called MakerHaus; located in an equally hipster area known as Freemont, Seattle. Accordingly, our assigned problem question was, “how might we improve transportation in the Seattle, Freemont area?” Long story short: we did a lot of research, asked a lot of questions, and came up with the idea of building an app that notifies a bus if your 1-3 minutes late, ultimately helping you catch it! We even got to present our app to the mayor’s assistant, city council, and Seattle Metropolitan Bus Transportation committee. It was pretty cool! (We also came up with the unconventional idea of implementing Google’s Shweeb, but this idea turned out to be unfeasible for a number of reasons.) After a week’s worth of full-indulgence in “transportation” and “city layouts” I came to appreciate the little things: the curbs between bike and car lanes, well built intersections, even the regulated parking distance away from the curb of blabedy blah inches! For this reason, I was absolutely blown away by the awesome urban planning in Spain! However, the illustrious question remains: Between Barcelona and Seville who takes the cake as the URBAN PLANNING KING?

In this corner, we have a bustling modern metropolis! With a prodigious population of 1.621 million, it’s big, with awe-inspiring ocean front property, its premium, and with an iconic radical like Gaudi raising the bar for the whole place, its certainly not resting on its laurels anytime soon, its more than just a bunch of buildings because it is BAR-CA-LONAAAAA!

And in this corner, weighing in with 702,355 citizens, the world’s largest gothic structure, and certainly the most couples making out in public places. We have the archaically sumptuous city of SE-VILLEEEEE!

BIKES ANYONE CAN USE

Bikes in Barcelona can be borrowed at any point and dropped off at any other location

Bikes in Barcelona can be borrowed at any point and dropped off at any other location.

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Bikes in Seville are the same as Barcelona with an added bonus of being able to use a credit card so no need to "join" the system.

Bikes in Seville are the same as Barcelona with an added bonus of being able to use a credit card so no need to “join” the system.

 

WALKING STREETS

Amazing walking streets throughout Barcelona

Amazing walking streets throughout Barcelona. They are organized in a grid pattern that looks a lot like the tread of a shoe:

barc2-2

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Seville's walking streets were designed to keep pedestrians cool in the heat of summer

Seville’s walking streets were designed to keep pedestrians cool in the heat of summer.

PIAZZAS

Every piazza in Barcelona has a restaurant taking advantage of the outdoor space

Every piazza in Barcelona has a restaurant taking advantage of the outdoor space.

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Piazzas in Seville are so beautiful, you feel like you are on a movie set!

Piazzas in Seville are so beautiful, you feel like you are on a movie set!

BOULEVARDS

This boulevard at sunset in Seville was spectacular with the Arc de Triomf in the background

This boulevard at sunset in Barcelona was spectacular with the Arc de Triumph in the background.

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Seville paved its boulevards so beautifully they looked like they were tiled!

Seville paved its boulevards so beautifully they looked like they were tiled!

PARKS

This park in Barcelona was super fancy!

This park in Barcelona was super fancy! There were even bubbles the size of Tuck floating around to add to the ambiance!

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Every Seville park was gardened beautifully and had at least one fountain!

Every Seville park was gardened beautifully and had at least one fountain!

STREET LIGHTS

Really ornate street lights line all the boulevards in Barcelona

Really ornate street lights line all the boulevards in Barcelona.

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This streetlight is ginormous but looks tiny next to the cathedral!

This streetlight in Seville is ginormous but looks tiny next to the cathedral!

ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION

Gondolas take folks to various vistas around Barcelona

Gondolas take folks to various vistas around Barcelona.

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Seville's main boulevard in the historic downtown makes way for a electric train for commuting

Seville’s main boulevard in the historic downtown makes way for a electric train for commuting.

Seven categories, (come on people) no ties, who wins? You decide! (By the way, if nobody votes five days from now, I will just post my personal opinion and be automatically right! So either way, this is a win-win situation. But seriously, I would love to hear your opinion! There are no right or wrong answers. Again, unless nobody votes. Then I am right by default. :)

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10 Comments

  1. Stephanie Craig (@steffinseattle) / December 9, 2013 at 4:22 pm /

    Barcelona is awesome. The bike rental spots all throughout the city is my fav mode of transport.

  2. Cari Johnson / December 9, 2013 at 6:58 pm /

    Seriously Wescott? Seville across the board. It’s easy to lean towards the fully functioning giant, but Seville is too personalized and reflects it’s charm. I especially like how the streets were designed to keep people cool. Why hasn’t anyone voted yet? Hard call I guess.

    What’s your vote?

  3. Greg Moll / December 9, 2013 at 9:47 pm /

    Barcelona – easy to get around everywhere from walking, trains and bikes.

  4. Vanessa / December 10, 2013 at 2:24 pm /

    As a Libra, it’s hard for me to give a straight up or down vote on practically anything. But I will give the absolute thumbs-up on your writing. Great post!

  5. Terry Aufranc / December 11, 2013 at 1:13 am /

    Loving smaller cities I vote for Seville but it looks as though both should be in the travel plans

  6. Cliff / December 11, 2013 at 1:36 am /

    You know my answer… loved Seville, but the way Barcelona continues to embrace each decade and move forward make it the winner for me!!

  7. jfrohnmayer / December 12, 2013 at 10:28 am /

    I vote for Barcelona because it is harder to do all the things you noted in a big city, and they not only do it, but do it spectacularly. Also, I was there :)

  8. keithandlorena / December 16, 2013 at 8:53 pm /

    In Barcelona, there was always lots of activity and some festival going on. The city was loaded with tourists without being too touristy. So BCN gets our vote. :)

  9. Ryan Aufranc Jones / December 25, 2013 at 3:09 pm /

    See the tread of the shoe comment really left me with an impression of conventional architecture in Barcelona and we all know that’s no fun, but then as I was typing in Seville for my vote I noticed the conveniently placed cleanline advertisement at the bottom of the page. Following that I looked down even further and noticed I my self was wearing a cozy cleanline shirt. So went straight to Google maps to precisely (with my fingers using the 20m key at the bottom) measure the distant from Seville to optimal surfing. Then I looked up Barcelona and felt pretty dumb when I found that it was bordered by water. A prime discovery and as impressive as those street lights were my new revelation nudged my opinion just enough to put confidence in voting…BARCELONA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOO MEESSIIII!!!!!!!!!!! GO SEAHAWKS!! YYESS VUVUZELAs!!!

    Vote: Barcelona

    • Lisa / December 28, 2013 at 6:06 am /

      Can’t wait to see you in Thailand Ryan! Happy New Year!

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