Civic Improvement And The City Beautiful Flashcards
Haussmann style and strategy
Paris mid 1800’s Style harsh Demolition for urban renewal Cutting new streets to open up centre Open up suburbs Regulate streets and add monuments
Haussmann tactics
Predominantly private sector
State purchases land to construct infrastructure
State controls building lines, regulated uniformity
Increase housing
Demolition in London
Unregulated driven by street improvements
Over 1000 families displaced in Holborn
Prestige thoroughfares replacing
No rehousing provisions
Edinburgh
Slum clearance
Used as public health device
Profit was most important
Improvement acts
Torrens housing act 1868
Allowed demolition but not replacement
Problems
No requirement to re house New housing intended wot superior working classes No representation of slum residents Representation limited of middle class Rents high Beneficiaries were often landlords
Broader assessment
Improved health and housing but aimed at moral uplift of working class Social welfare recognised but narrowing of political sphere
Back to the future?
Housing market renewal Demolition programmes of inner city terraces Community opposition Gentrification Mixed communities Dependent of private sector investment
The city beautiful relationships?
Between the city and the citizen
Between public and private spaces
How is behaviour shaped?
The state and municipal authority
How was Dallas described?
A city in the making
Origins
Sanitariums
Reclaiming the slums
Chicago- fires, disease and violence
Moral environmentalism- for people to appreciate there city and therefore be good citizens
Two theorists
Fredrick Law Olmsted
Baron Haussmann
Fredrick Law Olmsted?
Provision of large scale urban green-space in step with urban expansion
Baron Haussmann?
The provision of major traffic arteries and regulate private development
What were the local scale improvement organisations
Village improvement societies
Examples of things village improvement societies do?
Neat sidewalks Planting trees Well kept lawns Cemetery maintenance Litter bins Lighting
Chicago and the state?
1871 Great fire resulting in 100,000 homeless
Expansion of state power to inspect and regulate buildings and restrict uses of private property
Maps of living conditions- emergence of public health
The great civic awakening
Carefully designed public spaces would strengthen democracy and articulate collective values
Express of town pride
Personal responsibility
Example of civic awakening
Montclair, NJ
School children picking up litter to ensure habits of ‘neatness, pride and patriotism’
Order from chaos?
Resolving the upheaval of mass immigration and a means to ‘Americanisation’ ‘unity’ ‘civic consciousness’
Social harmony and standards for appropriate behaviour in the modern city
Key elements of unity?
Large scale Classical Renaissance design
Municipal art
Civic centre and monumental architecture
Aesthetics, safety and sanitation
Examples of city beautiful?
McMillan plan for Washington-1902
The White city of Chicago Colombian Exposition- 1904
Olmsted’s plan for Detroit- 1905
Plan for Chicago?
Burnham and Bennett 1909
Interconnected entity of buildings, roads and green space
Removal of heavy industry from the city core replaced by consumer oriented- leisure activities
Relocation of major rail lines to underground
Municipal authority in Chicago?
State intervention in the real estate market
Regulation of design and construction of buildings
Power to take private property
Zoning regulations
Police powers in municipal authority?
Power to regulate or seize private property threatening public welfare- nuisance laws regulating tenement housing
Advantages of the city beautiful?
Enhances urban commerce
Increase property values
Tourism
Fredrick Law Olmsted senior- civic boosterism
Consumption over production
Assuring safety through effective policing
The aristocratic City
No housing for workers
Working classes can enjoy the beauty of the parks and monuments but would reside on the city edges
The department store- Burnhams vision
Moving women from domestic sphere to retail employment
Criticism of city beautiful
Civic vanity
Gigantic costs
City should be practical, liveable and sensible above beautiful
City practical
John Nolan’s plan for Montclair- not approached superficially but conveniently and utility
From aesthetic led to functionalist driving
Relationship between beauty and utility
Beautility
