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| The Landing: Apartments with first floor retail, Iowa River Landing |
Ten years ago, Ben Kaplan criticized Coralville's Iowa River Landing development as having the design of an urban area but without the connection to or from other places that is essential to urbanism: Iowa River Landing is not well connected to anything outside of Iowa River Landing. While, from certain angles, the place looks urban, it's really just a glorified shopping mall with very expensive condos and apartments perched above.
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| East 2nd Avenue shops and street parking |
Today, Iowa River Landing remains easy to send up. It's a faux urbanist shopping mall of a type I've seen in other places as well. The streets are narrow and relatively quiet even amidst crowds of shoppers, but the handsome brick buildings are full of high-end franchises. LuLuLemon is next to Anthropologie is next to J. Jill. (Do I understand what I have just written? Reader, I do not. Maybe you could try Google Translate?)
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| View from Midnight Coffee: high end East 2nd Avenue shops |
Iowa River Landing is drive-to urbanism with a vengeance. Nevertheless, there are two ways of getting to Iowa River Landing, whether for a shopping spree or for a hockey game...
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| Xtream Arena is home to the Iowa Heartlanders |
...besides driving. The Coralville Transit Facility is located on Quarry Road in Iowa River Landing, which means you're connected by bus both locally and, via the 380 Express, to Cedar Rapids. (That's how I got there.)
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| The 380 Express stopping at Coralville |
Another way is by bike trail. The Iowa River Trail runs from the edge of Iowa River Landing, across a former railroad bridge, to the Peninsula Neighborhood. It took me about 20 minutes to walk from the hyper-bougey stores to the quirky and lovable houses.
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| entrance to Iowa River Landing Wetland Park |
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| trail bridge across Iowa River |
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| Looking back at Iowa River Landing |
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| Thornberry Dog Park at the edge of Peninsula |
Peninsula is a new urbanist-inspired development that was built over a decade ago. It is a residential subdivision, missing many checks on the urbanist checklist. There are very, very few commercial destinations, and no schools, offices or houses of worship.
And yet, I really liked it. And the connection to Iowa River Landing is not just theoretical: a father and daughter I saw at the coffee shop (Midnight Coffee, part of a regional chain) at Iowa River Landing turned up later walking home down McCleary Lane in Peninsula.
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| The Peninsula features a mix of detached houses, row houses and multifamily housing |
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| Apartments on McCleary Lane form the southern edge of the development |
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| garages face alleys not streets |
A bus stop on the neighborhood square is served once an hour by Iowa City Transit, which gets you to downtown Iowa City in 10-20 minutes depending on the destination, and as of current date is free to ride. Four people got on with me just afternoon, which is way more than I've ever experienced at the bus stops near my house.
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| bus stop where the #6 bus comes once an hour |
Across the street from the bus stop is the only commercial building, which contains a ramen restaurant open only in the evenings, a fitness studio open by appointment, and an empty place where a coffee cafe used to be.
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| Behind the bus stop: Emma J. Harvat Square Park |
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| Hayek Park is named for a former mayor, but if you want to celebrate the Austrian school, you go right ahead |
Both Iowa River Landing and Peninsula contain urbanist elements, although both are not-quite-urbanist. Both were "built all at once to a finished state," in Chuck Marohn's ominous phrase, so they might be quite a sight in about 2040 when things start wearing out. Still, I find Iowa River Landing unappealing and Peninsula very appealing.
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| Village green, Foster Road |
As not-quite-urbanism, Peninsula succeeds admirably. As I wandered around, I saw more people walking--some with dogs on their way to the dog park, but some without--than I typically would on a warm afternoon in my neighborhood. It was pleasant to be there, and I might find reason to return. I probably won't go back to Iowa River Landing, unless I've been poking around the Peninsula and need a cup of coffee.
SEE ALSO:
Ben Kaplan's Peninsula neighborhood video: New Urbanism In Iowa City: The Peninsula Neighborhood
Seg in Iowa City video: The Iowa City Peninsula Neighborhood | Seg in Iowa City | Neighborhood Tour Series
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| art on the trail |
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