Lexington, KY - Soaring steel power poles have recently been erected along Euclid and Woodland Avenues. The new service is ostensibly required by the University of Kentucky's hospital expansion. The university cared enough to bury the power lines on their own property along Woodland Avenue, but where the poles leave the university and enter the public realm they climb from underground to the tops of these absurdly tall steel masts. This action seems to symbolize the university's disdain for its neighbors.
To make matters worse, the university failed to communicate honestly and openly with the neighborhood.
Our city government failed to be good stewards of our environment.
And we, the people, failed to demand communication and control, and now we're stuck with brutal reminders of these failures.
The industrial-scale power poles are particularly painful because Euclid Avenue is a unique street, with such outstanding potential. Euclid was on the verge of becoming a pedestrian-friendly corridor with delightful scale and a healthy blend of retail, office and residential uses that would be the envy of any city. But now one whole end of the avenue is permanently blighted, turned into a surreal shipyard, full of grungy masts, stays, cables, spars and spikes - without the redeeming ships and water and cries of gulls.
The power pole blight accelerates the previously slow deterioration that's been threatening Euclid's terrific potential. You can see where the avenue is headed by looking at the low-end, dorm-like buildings that have sprouted primarily along the south side: ugly boxes with ignorant details, their only message to the passerby being, "I was built to minimize cost and maximize profit." Some of these cynical heaps actually sport the name of their owners, paeans to lack of awareness.
We've allowed our built environment to deteriorate in such a way that we don't even notice when a property owner - or a utility - builds something that is ugly or stupid or both. We usually fail to notice because the deterioration happens a little bit at a time. Only when something outrageous happens do we tend to notice - like the obscene power mast impaled at the corner of Woodland and Euclid.
Each corner of this intersection - at Euclid and Woodland Avenues - is completely different, and each one teaches us something:
Northwest corner: Here a house pins down one end of several blocks of single-family homes. This kind of neighborhood typified Euclid Avenue in the first half of the 20th century. The variety, materials and scale of these homes is reminiscent of an era when building new homes was more about pride in the individual house, and less about maximizing production.
Northeast corner: Woodland Plaza, a suburban style strip mall, offers parking in front and no design integrity. By putting cars where storefronts should be, the mall denies the pedestrian experience that is so much a part of this university-oriented area. By failing to make a built edge at the street, the development subverts the urban experience and downgrades the neighboring properties.
Southeast corner: Across Euclid from the strip mall is another remnant of the older order represented by the home. The two-story building suggests retail use at ground level with residence above - one can imagine a shopkeeper's family living above the shop. Lack of parking makes this a challenging place for business.
Southwest corner: The sad piece of ground (shown above) where the most offensive pole is skewered offers the strongest lesson. The pole sits next to an oversized vinyl box of student apartments. This building is completely out of character, turning its most hideous faces to the public streets. The Woodland Avenue side is a massive, blank, misshapen plastic wall. The dominant features on the Euclid side are darkly projecting heat pumps. The fact that this building could be erected in this location is all the evidence required to prove that the fabric of our community is under assault.
The tawdry condition of the commercial properties so degrades the intersection that the outrageous power pole on the southwest corner is like pay back for years of neglect. Such insidious blighting doesn't have to happen. We could lay blame on the university and utilities, who can seem oblivious to the damage they inflict on their host community. But we are all responsible. We have failed to do what it takes to ensure excellence in our built environment.
Lexington has what it takes to be outstandingly attractive - except that we have been unwilling to control what gets built. So, the city gets uglier quicker than we can dress it up. If you doubt we need design guidelines, just look at Euclid and Woodland. And have a good cry, because there's more where that came from. Count on it.
Graham Pohl is an architect and partner in Pohl Rosa Pohl, architecture + design. He was a monthly columnist for Chevy Chaser Magazine for over six years and continues to advocate for design excellence.