Key Planning Figures Flashcards
Charles Abrams
created the New York Housing Authority. In 1965 he published The City is the Frontier, a book that was highly critical of U.S. federal policies surrounding slum clearance, urban renewal, and public housing.
Thomas Adams
an important planner during the Garden City movement. He was the secretary of the Garden City Association and became the first manager of Letchworth, U.K. He developed a number of garden suburbs in England and later went on to teach planning at MIT and Harvard.
Saul Alinsky
an advocate of community organizing. Alinsky organized Chicago’s poor in the late 1930s and 1940s. In 1946, he published Reveille for Radicals, which encouraged those who were poor to become involved in American democracy. Later he published Rules for Radicals, which provided 13 rules for community organizing.
Sherry Arnstein
wrote “A Ladder of Citizen Participation” for the Journal of the American Planning Association in 1969. This article describes the levels of involvement by citizens depending on the form of participation utilized.
Daniel Burnham
a Chicago architect and prominent proponent of the City Beautiful movement. He was the lead force behind the 1893 Columbian Exposition and later the 1909 Plan of Chicago. His most famous quote is “Make no little plans. They have no fire to stir men’s blood.”
Rachel Carson
wrote Silent Spring, an important book in environmental planning. More about Rachel Carson on Wikipedia.
Robert Moses
transformed New York City’s public works from the 1930s through the 1950s. He expanded the state’s park system and built numerous parkways. He also built parks, playgrounds, highways, bridges, tunnels, and public housing. More about Robert Moses from Wikipedia.
John Nolen
designed Mariemont, Ohio and was a leading planner and landscape architect. He made substantial contributions including creating the first comprehensive plan in Florida, contributing to the park system in Madison, Wisconsin and designing Venice, Florida.
Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr.
considered the father of landscape architecture. He is responsible for many of the nation’s most important parks including Central and Prospect Parks in New York City, Niagra Reservation, and university campus landscapes. He was part of the design team for Riverside, IL, laid out in 1868.
Clarence Perry
developed the neighborhood unit concept which was implemented in Radburn, New Jersey. He was a key contributor to the 1929 Regional Survey of New York and its Environs.
Paolo Soleri
an architect responsible for designing Arcosanti, an experimental utopian city in Arizona focused on minimizing the impact of development on the natural environment.
Clarence Stein
designed Sunnyside Gardens in Queens, NY, Radburn, NJ, and many other garden suburbs in the U.S. He was a major proponent of the garden city movement. He wrote New Town for America in 1951.
Rexford Tugwell
served as the head of the Resettlement Administration during the New Deal. He worked on the greenbelt cities program, which sought construction of new, self-sufficient cities. Tugwell was closely involved in the development of Arthurdale, West Virginia, a Resettlement Administration community. He later served on the New York City Planning Commission and served as governor of Puerto Rico.
Sir Raymond Unwin
an English town planner and designer of Letchworth. He later lectured at the University of Birmingham in England and Columbia University. He wrote Town Planning in Practice, published in 1909.
Catherine Bauer Wurster
a founder of American housing policy. She worked to reform policy that was related to housing and city planning. She served as executive secretary of the Regional Planning Association of America. She wrote Modern Housing and was influential in the passage of the Housing Act of 1937.
