I Came, Eyesore, I Conquered -- Security and the City

Downtown jersey barriers. Photos by Witold Rybczynski.

In "I Came, Eyesore, I Conquered: Perimeter security is ugly and may not keep us safe," Witold Rybczynski, architecture critic for Slate Magazine, professor and author of City Life and many other books, writes about the problems of perimeter security and the jersey barriers and bollardization.

As Washingtonians know, this is a particular problem we face. The National Capital Planning Commission has a big effort in this area, "Security and Urban Design." Unfortunately, it doesn't trickle down to the Advisory Neighborhood Commission zoning and planning committees that weigh in on the public space permits that come before them. (This is complicated by the fact that the 6-8 ANCs that get most of these applications don't talk to each other, share best practices and ideas, or talk to the relevant people at NCPC.)

Rybczynski's article is short and worth a read.

Bollards on Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

The low granite wall makes a convenient place to sit and is nice to look at. (It recalls Frederick Law Olmsted's low garden walls at Capitol Hill.) That it also happens to be designed to stop a madman in a Hummer seems almost an afterthought.