Constructing New City Downtowns: A Solution for Preserving the Historical Urban Heritage

Abstract

Historic city centers usually include historic buildings and sites. As the size and the population of the cities increase, the price of land and real estates in the cities and, respectively, in the downtowns increases. This results in more demand for commercial buildings in city downtowns. In cities with historical and heritage urban areas, the mentioned demand may result in the demolition of heritage historical urban to be substituted by new modern buildings. A solution to this problem is constructing new city downtowns in unused, secluded, or abandoned lands or areas as regeneration megaprojects, which has been implemented in many cities worldwide during the last three centuries. But this solution also faces different challenges and needs specific arrangements. By reviewing lessons learned from some of the worldwide urban regeneration projects, this paper discusses the proposed arrangements to increase the chance of success in the mentioned megaprojects and summarizes them in three main categories as, proper planning and execution, proper institutional arrangements, and public-private cooperation.

1. Introduction

During the human civilization, most cities are historic small cities that grow up due to the increase in population and economic opportunities. Ancient cities like Rome, Paris, London, Athens, Beijing, New Delhi, Mumbai, Tehran, Isfahan, Istanbul, Cairo, New York, and many other cities are example of large cities (Metropolises) that have gradually become larger and more populated during centuries and even millenniums. Large cities are attractive for people due to their facilities and opportunities for occupation, studying, living, entertainment, etc.

In 2020, more than 30% of the global population live in metropolises with 300 thousand inhabitants. In 2020, nearly 85 metropolises inhabit by more than 5 million population [1]. Rising population and uncontrolled urban land consumption rates have been responsible for the rise of bigger and denser cities and metropolises [1]. Large cities are becoming the major pattern of global human settlements and are the main engine of economic development, which attract people for jobs, creates the highest values, and are the main support for the globalization process [2].

2. Historic urban heritage

The historic urban landscape is the urban area of a historic layering of cultural and natural values, extending beyond the notion of ‘historic center’ or ‘ensemble’ to include the broader urban context and its geographical setting [3]. As the size and the population of the cities increase, the economic value and the price of land and real estate in the cities and, respectively, in the downtowns increase. This results in the more demand for commercial space and, therefore, more demand for high-rise buildings in city downtowns, which are usually historic urban in metropolises.

The historical centers are most likely the undesirable consequence of growth and rapid technological advancement, with a range of environmental and developmental challenges [4]. The rehabilitation and conservation of historic city centers are major sources of change. Furthermore, urban regeneration of historical city centers also promotes social interaction between inhabitants of the city, and the adoption of its urban spaces encourages public activity [4].

In cities with historical heritage urban areas, city managers have different choices for managing rapid growth, whether to protect their urban heritage or let new development take its place [5]. But the mentioned demand sometimes results in demolition of heritage historical urban to be substituted by newly built modern buildings.

3. Construction of new city downtowns, a historic review

Instead of demolition of historic centers of cities, what would be the other choice to respond to the increasing demand for commercial and residential buildings? Every city has many underused and underutilized land or decaying urban areas that weaken the city’s landscape, livability, and productivity [5]. Construction of new city downtowns rooted in historical planning efforts, examples of which are presented below:

3.1 Isfahan, Iran

In the seventeenth century, the capital of Iran was relocated from Qazvin to Isfahan during the Safavids dynasty. Isfahan used to be the capital of Iran till the tenth century A.D., Therefore, it was a major developed city. But after five centuries, it needed considerable construction to adopt the new government buildings and urban planning to be the capital again. The traditional method was to demolish the old urban and reconstruct new urban buildings. But Iranian engineers and government decided to avoid demolishing and construct a new city center with a newly planned complex consisting of the main square, the King’s palace, Mosques (religious center), and the Bazar (economic center). The complex is named Naghsh-e Jahan square (newly known as Meidan Emam). The new complex was planned to be located in the wastelands surrounding the city but connected to the old urban of the city by the Bazar (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

The seventeenth century Isfahan city center vs. the tenth century one.

The city planners at that period decided to construct a new city complex nearby the old one in remote areas and connected it through a long Bazar (city market) that was constructed from the old urban to the new urban. This helped the government to avoid the cost of demolitions and relocation of people. Since the new complex was beside the city, logistics (transportation of manpower and material) was cheaper. Also, there was not any constraint for new construction. Therefore, a very nice architectural complex was constructed to be the 1st historic monument of Iran, which was registered in the world heritages Convention of UNESCO (Figure 2). The project was a megaproject for the period and was funded by the government at that time.

Figure 2.

The seventeenth century Isfahan city center (Naghsh-e-Jahan Square complex).

3.2 Istanbul, Turkey

Constantinople was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (also known as the Byzantine Empire) from 330 to 1204 A.D. It was also the capital of Latin Empire (1204–1261), again the capital of Byzantine Empire (1261–1453), and then the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). Following the Turkish War of Independence, the Turkish capital then moved to Ankara. It is officially renamed Istanbul in 1930, and the city is today the largest city and financial center of the Republic of Turkey (1923–present). Therefore, the grand Bazar (main market) has been the financial center of the city for centuries. In the twentieth century, modern construction has been implemented and the economic and financial urban were constructed in new areas in Istanbul, such as Levent, Maslak, and Şişli financial districts, which are the home to the headquarters of Turkey’s largest companies and banks and financial sector. Therefore, the grand Bazar was renovated and nowadays is just a tourist attraction in Istanbul. In fact, in its new role as a tourist attraction, it is one of the most attractions with more than 90 million visitors per year (Figure 3). This method is continued and the Istanbul Finance Center, the latest Turkey’s new economic hub, is under construction and opened partially in 2022 and is planned to construct 300.000 m² of modern buildings (Figure 4).

Figure 3.

Istanbul Grand Bazaar in historical urban.

Figure 4.

Istanbul financial center.

In fact, the construction of new economic and financial centers in Istanbul saved the grand Bazar and the surrounding historic urban from demolition and reconstruction.

3.3 Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Puerto Madero Waterfront is a neighborhood of Buenos Aires (Argentina), placed in the central business district, on the Río de la Plata riverbank, and represents the latest architectural trends. The city of Buenos Aires always had a problem accommodating large cargo ships, because the shallow river did not allow for direct docking. In the late nineteenth century, the national government contracted local businessman to take charge of the construction of a new port to solve these problems. It was a costly project and an engineering landmark at the time. But 10 years after its completion, the appearance of larger cargo ships made Puerto Madero obsolete (Figure 5).

Figure 5.

Buenos Aires Harbors.

In the 1990s, local and foreign investment led to a massive regeneration, recycling, and refurbishing of the west side warehouses into elegant houses, offices, universities, luxurious hotels, and restaurants for this new district in a city that grew up turning its back to the river. Luxurious hotels, state-of-the-art multiplex cinemas, theaters, cultural centers, and office and corporate buildings are located mostly on the east side (Figure 6). By 2010, a total of 2.25 million m² of space had been built in Puerto Madero. Public and private investment till 2009 was USD 1.7 billion and was estimated to reach USD 2.5 billion upon project completion [6].

Figure 6.

Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires.

3.4 Melbourne Docklands, Australia

Melbourne Docklands was a swamp land that became a bustling dock area in the 1880s, as part of the Port of Melbourne (Figure 7). It had an extensive network of wharfs, heavy rail infrastructure, and light industries. By increase in container shipping traffic, Docklands was virtually abandoned by the 1990s. The construction of Docklands Stadium in the late 1990s attracted interested developers, and urban renewal began in 2000 with several independent privately developed areas. Docklands subsequently experienced an apartment boom and became a sought-after business address (Figure 8). The suburb is known for landmarks and is also home to a number of heritage buildings, retained for adaptive reuse. Docklands is one of Australia’s largest urban renewal projects, reconnecting central Melbourne with its historic waterfront. Docklands comprise a number of precincts, each with a diverse variety of residential, commercial, retail, and leisure spaces. It is a 15 billion USD project including more than 1 million m² of commercial office space completed, or under construction, and includes 17,000 residences, of which, more than 60% are completed [7].

Figure 7.

Melbourne Docklands in 1997.

Figure 8.

Melbourne Docklands (Today).

The size of the Melbourne Docklands project required political influences and the government’s support [8].

3.5 Canary Wharf, London

From 1802 to the late 1980s, Canary Wharf was one of the busiest docks in the world (Figure 9). It is an area of London, located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Figure 9.

Canary Wharf (early twentieth century).

In the 1990s, a regeneration project was implemented and, nowadays, it is part of London’s central business district, alongside central London. It is one of the main financial centers in the United Kingdom and the world [9], containing many high-rise buildings (Figure 10). The area was developed on the site of the former West India Docks, containing around 1,500,000 m² of office and retail space. It is the home of the world or European headquarters of many major banks, professional services, and media firms.

Figure 10.

Canary Wharf (Today).

3.6 Titanic Quarter, Belfast, Ireland

Belfast’s Titanic Quarter is one of Europe’s largest urban waterfront regeneration projects. Over 700 USD million has already been invested. Titanic Quarter is home to over 100 national and international businesses. The 75-ha site is part of the Harland and Wolff shipyard, the company that made the famous Titanic ship (Figures 11 and 12) [10].

Figure 11.

Harland and Wolff shipyard (early tweniteth century).

Figure 12.

Titanic quarter (today).

Titanic Quarter is Northern Ireland’s most internationally known regeneration opportunity. Titanic Quarter has a proven track record, having already attracted more than 700 million USD of investment for the construction of some 170.000 m² of mixed-use development during the last decade and has a plan for a further 400.000 m² of development.

4. Discussion

Urban population is increasing all over the world and the demand for more residential and commercial buildings, shops, and malls is increasing yearly. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, demolition and reconstruction of old heritage buildings in city downtowns happened, mainly in developing countries.

But every city usually has unused, secluded, or abandoned lands or areas that may be regenerated to provide extra residential and commercial areas to afford the demand increase due to economic development and population increase.

Samples of these projects were mentioned and many others are constructed or under construction all over the world, such as Ahmedabad (India), Johannesburg (South Africa), Santiago (Chile), Seoul (South Korea), Shanghai (China), Singapore, and Washington DC (United States) [6], etc.

4.1 Required arrangements

In order to be sure about the success of preservation of urban heritage, the city managers shall assure the success of the new urban regeneration project that is planned to be constructed as the new city center (downtown). Success means that public and private sectors shall be attracted to the new regenerated project, so that the heritage urban be preserved without extra business load and even reduce its business load to just tourist attractions (similar to Istanbul Grand Bazaar).

But all of the above regeneration projects are large-scale megaprojects with construction areas from 200 thousand to more than two million m². Therefore, they may face different challenges that make them specific from normal projects and require specific arrangements to overcome the challenges. Major arrangement may be as below (the categorization is extracted and mentioned in the next section “lessons learned”):

Proper planning and execution: The project technical and project implementation plan shall be properly designed and also properly executed to minimize delays and over-budget. This is in fact the easiest challenge of megaprojects and is often technical and there are a lot of solutions for it.

Proper institutional arrangements: These megaprojects are often multi-organizational with diverse public and private sectors whose interactions shape the project path [11]. They face institutional challenges that differentiate them from normal projects [12]. Institutional challenges are challenges due to cultural, political, social, regulative, or normative issues that affect the projects. Historically, the main challenges of constructing infrastructure projects were primarily technical and financial in nature. However, today, one of the greatest challenges of such projects are social and/or political issues [13]. These challenges require proper institutional arrangements to be overcome. Institutional factors have different impacts on megaprojects and their performance. Some of these impacts are direct, such as impact on performance, success, governance, cost, etc. A considerable number of these impacts are studied as indirect factors that affect the performance of megaprojects, such as the impacts affecting the society and surrounding community, project management, creating institutional conflict and challenges between project actors and other stakeholders, lack of institutional knowledge, form of contracts, or the impact on cooperation of partners that consequently impact final megaproject performance [14]. Literature review and also empirical findings emphasized the significance of political factors and their impact on megaprojects. In fact, political elements are due to political behavior or interests of individuals or political parties and impact the megaprojects [15].

Public-private cooperation: There are very few urban regeneration projects that are implemented only by the public sector because they need a lot of financial resources. Very few cities have the resources to finance all of the costs of such large projects. The partnership with the private sector is necessary to share the costs, risks, and technical capacities. Therefore, cities use a combination of internal and external funding sources, policy and regulatory tools, and strategic partnerships with the private sector [6]. These large-scale megaprojects surely cannot be funded only by government or private sector but need both types of investments. Even for rich governments, the authorities shall be sure that there are enough customers for the project. Therefore, participation of the private sector is very important for the success of regeneration projects of underutilizing urban lands [6]. The main reasons for the necessity of joint investment of public and private funds may be mentioned as:

1. The size of investment is large and cannot be afforded only by the governments or private sectors.

2. The joint investment of both sectors may guarantee that the constructed buildings will be sold and, therefore, may increase the success of regeneration project.

4.2 Lessons learned

The World Bank has a study on some urban regeneration projects in Ahmedabad, Johannesburg, Santiago, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, and Washington DC and presented some lessons learned from these projects that may be summarized below [6], which emphasizes the challenges and arrangements mentioned above and may be useful for future projects (some of the below lessons learned may fall in more than one category, but it is categorized as per the author’s idea):

4.2.1 Planning and execution

Proper vision: Complex regeneration projects are rooted in a powerful, well-thought-out, historically rooted, contextual, long-term, and inspiring vision for the city and the areas that will be the focus of regeneration.

Think long term because urban redevelopment requires forward thinking and planning and is initiated in tandem with formulating a comprehensive master plan.

Consistency in local government ideas and priorities for the project is important, especially in longer-term redevelopment efforts.

Redevelopment of a special area within a larger area as a whole can be helpful in balancing the long-term costs and benefits.

Plan ahead for how best to create an organizational strategy, to give the best chance for success in the long term. There is not one answer or way to do this, and this can change over time.

Simple development instruments within the existing zoning are important and only modify what was strictly necessary to facilitate project implementation and minimize confrontation with other affected interests.

Flexible zoning allows for mixed-use developments (residential, retail offices, recreational, and commercial uses) and creates an active pedestrian area.

Commitment and technical capability by all parties are crucial.

An implementation organization should be properly defined to be capable of the megaproject.

Short-term action plans, along with a long-term vision, need to be developed to ensure success.

Create urgency to act and to create momentum, otherwise, the project risks being perceived as “yet another plan.”

Phase the project in order to manage the expectations of the public that want to see change “overnight”. It is important not to succumb to the pressure of overpromising results that cannot be achieved.

Overcome intimidating barriers to success, despite challenges that appear overwhelming and discouraging.

Fast implementation, due to proper funding arrangements, empowers project sponsors to execute the project without extensive political interference.

Ongoing implementation of the plan (despite unfavorable/unforeseen circumstances) may reassure developers and investors of their expectations.

Seizing opportunities to identify anchors and catalytic actions, send a strong message that the project is “for real.” It is important to demonstrate real commitments to the vision as early as possible and to be opportunistic and aggressive in securing commitments.

4.2.2 Institutional arrangements

Holistic approach to collaboration and renovation by all stakeholders shall be concerned to achieve the goal of repopulating and revitalizing the city.

Addressing social justice measures to overcome extreme poverty: The resettlement of poor urban residents to the periphery may be a source of violence.

Political leadership matters, so the project shall be planned and presented properly to the public and different parties to attract all political parties’ consensus.

A flexible approach to negotiating with investors allows for the adjustment to contractual terms, negotiation of extensions, and alterations in land use when market conditions rendered project financial feasibility difficult.

Strong, diverse, and vocal board of directors encompasses diverse technical and professional capacities contributed to the success of the project.

Portraying the project as a civic improvement project rather than a partisan political project with the presence of the opposition party on the board, help the project to be viewed as a party project and do not lose support with changes in political climate.

Maintaining proactive municipal leadership and institutional and political stability are very important when creating major change.

An experienced and capable city resource team with strong civic-minded leadership from the private sector would help and support the development of the city.

A key, flagship project should lead urban regeneration efforts.

Adjust incentives and regulations for private developers to respond to changes in market dynamics, such as attracting private investors and low- and middle-income household buyers.

Continuous community participation and engagement for city regeneration processes shall be done during the design phase and project implementation.

Taking external managerial support along with other technical and professional inputs in the very early stages of the project may help the success of the project. Early stages of the project can be highly challenging because there is little tangible evidence of progress and it is not always feasible to expect an internal managerial team to rally behind a project whose future is uncertain.

Consensus of public officials and other stakeholders may be achieved by an initial draft master plan or urban design framework.

Cultural heritage should be considered an asset and a form of capital that can enhance the identity of a place, generating and even raising property values.

Leading with vision and pragmatism has an important impact on planning and implementation. One important aspect of leadership is having the political will to push through policies or projects that are considered unpopular or politically difficult (if leaders are convinced that such policies or projects have long-term benefits for the city).

Understanding market position, land ownership, and existing conditions of the proposed regeneration area are important in order to assess the scale and scope of the challenge, the barriers that will need to be overcome, and the opportunities that can be created.

Integrated framework and approach in order to recognize the inter-dependencies.

Leverage public and private resources in the most effective manner.

Tenacity and focus, as a primary emphasis of the vision for the city, sent a powerful message that the regeneration project is a foundation for the city.

4.2.3 Public-private cooperation

Create institutional arrangements to support public and private cooperation, such as establishing a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) with real estate developers.

Creating institutional arrangements for absorbing private funds is an important factor in the success of the project. The lack of public financing gave credibility to the corporation with the private sector, and reduce continuous scrutiny and reporting.

Working with markets and a clear, transparent framework for the development in the form of land sale conditions and tender process is an important tool to assure success of the project. The private sector may propose creative forms for providing financial capital.

5. Conclusions

A large number of global population live in metropolises, urban population is increasing all over the world, and the demand for more residential and commercial spaces is increasing yearly. This results in the increase of the economic value and the price of land and real estate in the cities and, respectively, in the downtowns.

The historical centers often were the first choices to be demolished and substituted by modern urban reconstruction. In past, demolition and reconstruction of old heritage buildings in city downtowns was the main source of responding to the growing demand. But every city usually has unused, secluded, or abandoned lands to be used for urban regeneration to provide extra residential and commercial areas to afford the demand increase.

Examples of these new city downtown projects were addressed, which have 200 thousand to more than 2 million square meters of building construction, that are actually megaprojects. These megaprojects cannot be implemented solely by government, public sector, or private sector, but their mutual cooperation is a necessity for the success of these projects. Therefore, in order to save the heritage urban of the cities, the city planners should plan regeneration projects in unused or wastelands of the cities to transform the commercial values and attractions of the heritage urban to the new regenerated project. They shall also be aware of main challenges of this type of regeneration megaprojects, which are mainly institutional and public-private cooperation challenges.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.