History Terms

Question 1

Law of the Indies

Answer 1

theentire body of lawsissued by theSpanish Crownfor theAmericanand Philippine possessions of itsempire. They regulated social, political, religious, and economic life in these areas. The laws are composed of myriad decrees issued over the centuries and the important laws of the 16th century, which attempted to regulate the interactions between the settlers and natives, such as theLaws of Burgos(1512) and theNew Laws(1542).

Question 2

Ordinance of 1785

Answer 2

adopted by theUnited StatesCongress of the Confederationon May 20, 1785. It set up a standardized system whereby settlers could purchase title to farmland in the undeveloped west. Congress at the time did not have the power to raise revenue by direct taxation. Established the basis for the Public Land Survey System.

Question 3

McMillian Commission / Plan

Answer 3

“acomprehensive planningdocument for the development of the monumental core and the park system ofWashington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was written in 1902 by theSenate Park Commission. The commission is popularly known as the McMillan Commission after its chairman,SenatorJames McMillanofMichigan.

proposed eliminating the Victorian landscaping of the National Mall and replacing it with a simple expanse of grass, narrowing the Mall, and permitting the construction of low, Neoclassical museums and cultural centers along the Mall’s east–west axis. The plan proposed constructing major memorials on the western and southern anchors of the Mall’s two axes, reflecting pools on the southern and western ends, and massive granite and marble terraces and arcades around the base of the Washington Monument.”

Question 4

Homestead Act of 1862

Answer 4

an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a “homestead.” In all, more than 270 million acres of public land, or nearly 10% of the total area of the U.S., was given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders

Question 5

Morrill Act

Answer 5

allowed for the creation ofland-grant collegesinU.S. statesusing the proceeds of federal land sales.(UGA!)

Question 6

“Old” New York State Tenement House Act

Answer 6

The 1879 law required that every habitable room have a window opening to plain air, a requirement that was met by including air shafts between adjacent buildings. Old Law Tenements are commonly called “dumbbell tenements” after the shape of the building footprint: the air shaft gives each tenement the narrow-waisted shape of adumbbell, wide facing the street and backyard, narrowed in between to create the air corridor.

Question 7

Settlement House Movement

Answer 7

”"”How the Other Half Lives”” by Jacob Riis

a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in England and the US. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and social interconnectedness. Its main object was the establishment of ““settlement houses”” in poor urban areas, in which volunteer middle-class ““settlement workers”” would live, hoping to share knowledge and culture with, and alleviate the poverty of, their low-income neighbors. The ““settlement houses”” provided services such as daycare, education, and healthcare to improve the lives of the poor in these areas.”

Question 8

City Beautiful Movement

Answer 8

“World Columbian Exposition designed by Daniel Burnham (Chicago 1893)

a reform philosophy of North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of introducing beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. The movement, which was originally associated mainly with Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Washington, D.C., promoted beauty not only for its own sake, but also to create moral and civic virtue among urban populations.[1] Advocates of the philosophy believed that such beautification could promote a harmonious social order that would increase the quality of life, while critics would complain that the movement was overly concerned with aesthetics at the expense of social reform; Jane Jacobs referred to the movement as an ““architectural design cult.”””

Question 9

Garden City Movement

Answer 9

“Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform by Ebenezer Howard (1898)

The garden city movement is a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. Garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained communities surrounded by ““greenbelts””, containing proportionate areas of residences, industry and agriculture.”

Question 10

“New” New York State Tenement House Act

Answer 10

1901 was one of the first such laws to ban the construction of dark, poorly ventilatedtenementbuildings in the state ofNew York. Among other sanctions, the law required that new buildings must be built with outward-facing windows in every room, an open courtyard, proper ventilation systems, indoor toilets, and fire safeguards.

Question 11

Burnam Plan / 1909 Plan of Chicago

Answer 11

“co-authored by Daniel Burnham and Edward H. Bennett. It recommended an integrated series of projects including new and widened streets, parks, new railroad and harbor facilities, and civic buildings. Though only portions of the plan were realized, the document reshaped Chicago’s central area

• Improvement on lakefront
• regional highway system
• improvement of railway terminals
• new outer parks
• systematic arrangement of streets
• civic and cultural centers”

Question 12

Radiant City

Answer 12

“1920 - Le Corbusier

Ville Radieuse (The Radiant City) is an unrealized urban masterplan by Le Corbusier, first presented in 1924 and published in a book of the same name in 1933. Designed to contain effective means of transportation, as well as an abundance of green space and sunlight, Le Corbusier’s city of the future would not only provide residents with a better lifestyle, but would contribute to creating a better society. Though radical, strict and nearly totalitarian in its order, symmetry and standardization, Le Corbusier’s proposed principles had an extensive influence on modern urban planning and led to the development of new high-density housing typologies.

At the core of Le Corbusier’s plan stood the notion of zoning: a strict division of the city into segregated commercial, business, entertainment and residential areas. The business district was located in the center, and contained monolithic mega-skyscrapers, each reaching a height of 200 meters and accommodating five to eight hundred thousand people. Located in the center of this civic district was the main transportation deck, from which a vast underground system of trains would transport citizens to and from the surrounding housing districts.
“

Question 13

Standard State Zoning Enabling Act

Answer 13

amodel lawfor U.S. states toenablezoningregulations in their jurisdictions. It was drafted by a committee of theDepartment of Commerceand first issued in 1922. This act was one of the foundational developments inland use planningin the United States.

Question 14

Concentric Zone Theory

Answer 14

“Ernest Burgess - 1925

the explanation of distribution of social groups within urban areas. This concentric ring model depicts urban land usage in concentric rings: the Central Business District (or CBD) was in the middle of the model, and the city expanded in rings with different land uses. It is effectively an urban version of Von Thünen’s regional land use model developed a century earlier.[3] It influenced the later development of Homer Hoyt’s sector model (1939) and Harris and Ullman’s multiple nuclei model (1945).

The zones identified are:

• The center with the central business district,
• The transition zone of mixed residential and commercial uses or the zone of transition,
• Working class residential homes (inner suburbs), in later decades called inner city or zone of independent working men’s home,
  -Better quality middle-class homes (outer suburbs) or zone of better housing,
  Commuter zone.”

Question 15

State City Planning Enabling Act

Answer 15

“In March 1927, a preliminary edition of the second model, A Standard City Planning Enabling Act (SCPEA), was released, and a final version was published in 1928. The SCPEA covered six subjects:

• the organization and power of the planning commission, which was directed to prepare and adopt a ““master plan””
• the content of the master plan for the physical development of the territory
• provision for adoption of a master street plan by the governing body
• provision for approval of all public improvements by the planning commission
• control of private subdivision of land
• provision for the establishment of a regional planning commission and a regional plan”

Question 16

Radburn, NJ

Answer 16

In 1929, Clarence Stein and Henry Wright collaborated withKenneth Weinbergeron the plan for theRadburncommunity inFair Lawn, New Jersey, roughly double the area of Sunnyside. The vision for Radburn was of an integrated self-sustaining community, surrounded by greenbelts, specialized automotive thoroughfares (main linking roads, serviced lanes for direct access to buildings, and express highways), and a complete separation of auto and pedestrian traffic. These thoroughfares were called superblocks. This was because the block is very large with a very large road surrounding the houses within. Stein knew that the community could not survive without a road system but he also didn’t want the roads dominating the land. Instead, the superblocks make the main focus on the yards and the gardens surrounding the buildings. This grand vision was informed by the lessons of Sunnyside, and by the comparable city-planning work ofErnst Mayin Germany (researched by a youngCatherine Bauer), but the experiment was never completed because of the economic pressures of the Depression.

Question 17

Neighborhood Unit

Answer 17

“Clarence Perry, 1929, The Regional Survey of NY and its Environs

"”Centre the school in the neighbourhood so that a child’s walk to school was only about one-quarter of a mile and no more than one half mile and could be achieved without crossing a major arterial street. Size the neighbourhood to sufficiently support a school, between 5,000 and 9,000 residents, approximately 160 acres at a density of ten units per acre.

Place arterial streets along the perimeter so that they define and distinguish the ““place”” of the neighborhood and by design eliminate unwanted through-traffic from the neighborhood. In this way, major arterials define the neighborhood, rather than divide it through its heart.

Design internal streets using a hierarchy that easily distinguishes local streets from arterial streets, using curvilinear street design for both safety and aesthetic purposes. Streets, by design, would discourage unwanted through traffic and enhance the safety of pedestrians.

Restrict local shopping areas to the perimeter or perhaps to the main entrance of the neighborhood, thus excluding nonlocal traffic destined for these commercial uses that might intrude on the neighborhood.

Dedicate at least 10 percent of the neighborhood land area to parks and open space”

Question 18

Disappearing City (Broadacre City)

Answer 18

“Frank Loyd Wright, Disappearing City, 1932

eachU.S.family would be given a oneacre(4,046.86 m²) plot of land from the federal lands reserves, and a Wright-conceived community would be built anew from this. In a sense it was the exact opposite oftransit-oriented development. There is a train station and a few office and apartment buildings in Broadacre City, but the apartment dwellers are expected to be a small minority. All important transport is done byautomobileand thepedestriancan exist safely only within the confines of the one acre (4,046.86 m²) plots where most of the population dwells.”

Question 19

Central Place Theory

Answer 19

“Walter Christaller, 1933

in geography, an element of location theory (q.v.) concerning the size and distribution of central places (settlements) within a system. Central-place theory attempts to illustrate how settlements locate in relation to one another, the amount of market area a central place can control, and why some central places function as hamlets, villages, towns, or cities.

The determining factor in the location of any central place is the threshold, which comprises the smallest market area necessary for the goods and services to be economically viable. Once a threshold has been established, the central place will seek to expand its market area until the range—i.e., the maximum distance consumers will travel to purchase goods and services—is reached.

”

Question 20

City Humane Movement

Question 21

TVA

Answer 21

“Tennessee Valley Authority - 1933, efforts of Senator George Norris of Nebraska.

a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter on May 18, 1933, to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development to the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected by the Great Depression. The enterprise was a result of the efforts of Senator George W. Norris of Nebraska. TVA was envisioned not only as a provider, but also as a regional economic development agency that would use federal experts and electricity to more quickly modernize the region’s economy and society.”

Question 22

Resettlement Administration

Answer 22

Greenbelt Towns - the New Deal during the 1930s, one of the most innovative was the three “greenbelt” towns: Greenbelt, Maryland, out-side Washington, D.C.; Greenhills, Ohio, north of Cincinnati; and Greendale, Wisconsin, near Milwaukee. The towns took their names from the wide belt of open land surrounding each, separating them from adjacent suburban developments and reinforcing their sense of local cohesion. The New Deal’s Resettlement Administration constructed the towns between 1935 and 1938, giving jobs to twenty-five thousand unemployed workers. Exemplifying the most advanced planning ideas, Greenbelt, the largest of the three towns, received the most public attention. Its 885 dwellings were carefully arranged on super blocks with generous amounts of open space. The town center contained a municipal building, retail stores, a movie theater, a gas station, a swimming pool, and a public school that also served as a community center. Pedestrian paths wound through each neighborhood, passed safely under major roads, and linked all the dwellings to the town center.

Question 23

Sector Theory

Answer 23

1939 - Homer Hoyt. It is a modification of the concentric zone model of city development. The benefits of the application of this model include the fact it allows for an outward progression of growth. As with all simple models of such complex phenomena, its validity is limited.

Question 24

City Functional

Answer 24

1940’s, focused on scientific city management, including consideration for waste removal, zoning, and altering spaces for convenience/efficiency. Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.

Question 25

Multiple Nuclei Model

Answer 25

“1945 article ““The Nature of Cities”” by Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman

The model describes the layout of a city, based on Chicago. It says that even though a city may have begun with a central business district, or CBD, other smaller CBDs develop on the outskirts of the city near the more valuable housing areas to allow shorter commutes from the outskirts of the city. This creates nodes or nuclei in other parts of the city besides the CBD thus the name multiple nuclei model. Their aim was to produce a more realistic, if more complicated, model. Their main goals in this were to:

• Move away from the concentric zone model
• To better reflect the complex nature of urban areas, especially those of larger size”

Question 26

Levittown and GI Bill

Answer 26

“Levittown is the name of seven large suburban housing developments created in the United States and Puerto Rico by William Levitt and his company Levitt & Sons. Built after World War II for returning veterans and their new families, the communities offered attractive alternatives to cramped central city locations and apartments. The Veterans Administration and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) guaranteed builders that qualified veterans could buy housing for a fraction of rental costs.

Production was modeled on assembly lines in 27 steps with construction workers trained to perform one step. A house could be built in one day when effectively scheduled. This enabled quick and economical production of similar or identical homes with rapid recovery of costs. Standard Levittown houses included a white picket fence, green lawns, and modern appliances. Sales in the original Levittown began in March 1947. 1,400 homes were purchased during the first three hours.

The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, also known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). It was designed by the American Legion, who helped push it through Congress by mobilizing its chapters (along with the Veterans of Foreign Wars); the goal was to provide immediate rewards for practically all World War II veterans.”

Question 27

Sunbelt Migration

Answer 27

“Unsure exactly, but:

1920’s - 1960’s - Great migration of African Americans from the southern states to the northern and midwestern states due to high unemployment, segreation, lynchings, and lack of economic and social opportunities.

Could also be in reference to the steady movement of people from the northern states to the southern states in the 20th century because of better climate, jobs, and lower tax rates.

”

Question 28

Johnson’s Great Society

Answer 28

“TheGreat Societywas a set of domestic programs in the United States launched byDemocraticPresidentLyndon B. Johnsonin 1964–65. The main goal was the elimination of poverty and racial injustice. President Johnson first used the term ““Great Society”” during a speech atOhio University, then unveiled the program in greater detail at an appearance atUniversity of Michigan.

New major spending programs that addressed education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, and transportation were launched during this period. The program and its initiatives were subsequently promoted by him and fellowDemocratsin Congress in the 1960s and years following. The Great Society in scope and sweep resembled theNew Dealdomestic agenda ofFranklin D. Roosevelt.”

Question 29

Civil Rights Act and HUD

Answer 29

“TheCivil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmarkcivil rightsandUS labor lawin theUnited States[5]that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.[6]It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requirements,racial segregationin schools, employment, andpublic accommodations. Powers given to enforce the act were initially weak, but were supplemented during later years. Congress asserted its authority to legislate under several different parts of theUnited States Constitution, principally its power to regulateinterstate commerceunderArticle One(section 8), its duty to guarantee all citizensequal protectionof the laws under theFourteenth Amendment, and its duty to protect voting rights under theFifteenth Amendment.

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is a Cabinet department in the Executive branch of the United States federal government. Although its beginnings were in the House and Home Financing Agency, it was founded as a Cabinet department in 1965, as part of the ““Great Society”” program of President Lyndon Johnson, to develop and execute policies on housing and metropolises.”

Question 30

Model Cities Program

Answer 30

“an element of U.S. President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and War on Poverty. In 1966, new legislation led to the more than 150 five-year-long, Model Cities experiments to develop new antipoverty programs and alternative forms of municipal government. The ambitious federal urban aid program succeeded in fostering a new generation of mostly black urban leaders.

The Model Cities initiative created a new program at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) intended to improve coordination of existing urban programs. Several cities including Detroit, Oakland, Newark and Camden received funding. The program’s initial goals emphasized comprehensive planning, involving not just rebuilding but also rehabilitation, social service delivery, and citizen participation. In 1969 the Nixon administration officially changed course; however in the majority of cities, citizen participation mechanisms continued to play an important role in local decision-making.”

Question 31

NEPA, EPA, and Environmental Acts

Answer 31

“Nixon - Environmental President

National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 - NEPA’s most significant outcome was the requirement that all executive federal agencies prepare environmental assessments (EAs) and environmental impact statements (EISs). These reports state the potential environmental effects of proposed federal agency actions

Environmental Protection Agency - 1970.

”

Question 32

Seaside and New Urbanism

Answer 32

an urban design movement which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighborhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types.[1] It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually influenced many aspects of real estate development, urban planning, and municipal land-use strategies. New Urbanists support: regional planning for open space; context-appropriate architecture and planning; adequate provision of infrastructure such as sporting facilities, libraries and community centres;[5] and the balanced development of jobs and housing. They believe their strategies can reduce traffic congestion by encouraging the population to ride bikes, walk, or take the train. They also hope that this set up will increase the supply of affordable housing and rein in suburban sprawl.

Question 33

Saul Alinsky

Answer 33

“Rules for Radicals” Divided into ten chapters, Rules for Radicals provides 10 lessons on how a community organizer can accomplish the goal of successfully uniting people into an active grassroots organization with the power to effect change on a variety of issues. Though targeted at community organization, these chapters also touch on other issues that range from ethics, education, communication, and symbol construction and political philosophy.

Question 34

Jane Jacobs

Answer 34

”"”The Death and Life of Great American Cities””

Reserving her most vitriolic criticism for the ““rationalist”” planners (specifically Robert Moses) of the 1950s and 1960s, Jacobs argued that modernist urban planning rejects the city, because it rejects human beings living in a community characterized by layered complexity and seeming chaos. The modernist planners used deductive reasoning to find principles by which to plan cities. Among these policies she considered urban renewal the most violent, and separation of uses (i.e., residential, industrial, commercial) the most prevalent. These policies, she claimed, destroy communities and innovative economies by creating isolated, unnatural urban spaces.

In their place Jacobs advocated ““four generators of diversity”” that ““create effective economic pools of use””:[2]

Mixed primary uses, activating streets at different times of the day
Short blocks, allowing high pedestrian permeability
Buildings of various ages and states of repair
Density”

Question 35

Paolo Soleri

Answer 35

“Arcology- a field of creating architectural design principles for very densely populated, ecologically low-impact human habitats.

The term was coined by architect Paolo Soleri, who posited that a completed arcology would provide space for a variety of residential, commercial, and agricultural facilities while minimizing individual human environmental impact. These structures have been largely hypothetical insofar as no arcology, even one envisioned by Soleri himself, has yet been built. “

Question 36

John DeGrove

Answer 36

Florida’s Growth Management - florida’s Growth Management Laws are a series of statutes passed during times of a booming Florida economy, designed to control growth within Florida communities including protecting the environment and discouraging urban sprawl.

Question 37

Jean Gottman

Answer 37

“a French geographer who was best known for his seminal study on the urban region of the Northeast megalopolis. His main contributions to human geography were in the sub-fields of urban, political, economic, historical and regional geography.

Megalopolis - a chain of roughly adjacent metropolitan areas, which may be somewhat separated or may merge into a continuous urban region. “

Question 38

Norman Krumholtz

Answer 38

”"”Equity Planning””

Equity planning is a framework in which urban planners working within government use their research, analytical, and organizing skills to influence opinion, mobilize underrepresented constituencies, and advance and perhaps implement policies and programs that redistribute public and private resources to the poor and working class. This approach divergesfrom the downtown-oriented land-use planning tradition of most U.S. cities. The bibliography compiles literature that describes some of the theoretical and political debate about planning for social equity goals. It is also a resource that informs and guides planners, public administrators, urban policy analysts, and community leaders regarding some of the actual experiences of equity planning over the past twentyfive years.”

Question 39

Peter Calthorpe

Answer 39

“CNU - Congress for New Urbanism

urban design movement which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighborhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types.[1] It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually influenced many aspects of real estate development, urban planning, and municipal land-use strategies.

New Urbanism is strongly influenced by urban design practices that were prominent until the rise of the automobile prior to World War II; it encompasses ten basic principles such as traditional neighborhood design (TND) and transit-oriented development (TOD).[2] These ideas can all be circled back to two concepts: building a sense of community and the development of ecological practices.”

Question 40

Andres Duany

Answer 40

“American founder of CNU

SmartCode - a unified land development ordinance template for planning and urban design. Originally developed by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, this open source program is a model form-based unified land development ordinance designed to create walkable neighborhoods across the full spectrum of human settlement, from the most rural to the most urban, incorporating a transect of character and intensity within each. It folds zoning, subdivision regulations, urban design, and basic architectural standards into one compact document. Because the SmartCode enables community vision by coding specific outcomes that are desired in particular places, it is meant to be locally calibrated by professional planners, architects, and attorneys.”