Movements, Theory & Models Flashcards
City Beautiful Movement (when, main ideas, key people)
1893, led by Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted. Influenced by Baron Haussmann’s efforts in Paris.
Emerged from Chicago’s 1893 Columbian Exposition, nicknamed the White City.
Emphasized design, aesthetics, and monumental grandeur in buildings and cities.
Resulted in the revival of city planning and its establishment as a permanent part of local government.
Garden City Movement
1898, Ebenezer Howard - Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform. 1902 - Garden Cities of Tomorrow.
First 2 garden cities: Letchworth (1903) and Welwyn (1919) in England.
1909 - first use of Garden City concepts in the US - Forest Hill Gardens in Queens, NY by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.
Idealized garden city would house 32,000 people on a site of 6,000 acres. Planned on a concentric pattern with open spaces, public parks, and wide radial boulevards extending from the center. The garden city would be self-sufficient. When it reached it’s capacity, another garden city would be developed nearby and be connected by railroads.
New Town Movement Developments
1964 - After WWII, Reston, VA was founded by Robert E. Simon and became the first modern planned American New Town. Based on garden city principles, preserved greenspace and the surrounding woodlands while developing dense village centers with unique architectural styles and retail shops.
Columbia, Maryland was founded in 1967 by James Rouse and planned with New Town principles. Initially split into 6 self-contained villages that surrounded the Town Center and mall.
New Urbanism
1982, Andres Duany, Peter Katz, Peter Calthorpe
Late 20th century movement towards traditional planning form (mixed use, grids, narrow streets, centralized public spaces and buildings)
Seaside, FL - Andres Duany
Garden City Developments in the US
1928 - Sunnyside Gardens, NY - neighborhood in the NYC borough of Queens. Designed by Clarence Stein and Henry Wright.
1929 - Radburn, NJ - a town for the motor age. Planned by Clarence Stein, Henry Wright, and landscape architect Marjorie Sewell Cautley.
1935 - Greenbelt Towns. Greenbelt, Maryland is the first and largest of the New Deal Greenbelt Towns. Other greenbelt towns being Greenhills, Ohio and Greendale, Wisconsin.
New Town Movement
Form of urban planning designed with two main intentions:
(1) remedy overcrowding and congestion
(2) organize scattered ad hoc settlements
Derived from the Garden City Movement. New Town policies in the US post-WWII, ~1960s, i.e. Reston, VA and Columbia, MD
Radiant City (when, who, main ideas)
1924, arose from Le Corbusier’s “The City of Tomorrow”
Key concept proposed high-rise residential towers surrounded by green space and bisected by high-speed vehicular routes using “superblocks”.
Provided the model for early 20th century social housing, especially in Europe, and post WWII high-rise American public housing.
Concentric Zone Theory (who, when, what)
1925, Ernest Burgess and based on Chicago
Explanation of social group distribution in social areas. Proposed that cities grow outward from a central business district core. As the city grows, each ring invades and overtakes the next ring out (invasion/succession).
2nd zone - transition zone comprised of mixed residential and commercial use.
3rd zone - working class residential homes, inner city
4th zone - middle-class suburbs
5th and outermost zone - commuting zone of high-class homes on the outskirts.
Central Place Theory (who, when, what)
1933, Walter Christaller
Theory of city evolution. Asserts that settlements function as central places that provide services to surrounding areas.
Settlements grow on a hierarchical system. The larger the settlement are in size, the fewer in number they will be (i.e. many small villages, few large cities.) The larger the settlement, the greater the distance between them. As a settlement increases in size, the range and number of its functions increase.
Broadacre City (who, when, what)
1932, Frank Lloyd Wright
Outlined in the Disappearing City. Core concept: completely disperse the modern city and give each family at least an acre of land.
Model of auto-oriented suburbia
City Humane Movement
1930s, planning response associated with the New Deal under Roosevelt to address the Great Depression.
Planning efforts focused on social and economic issues and ways of alleviating the problems of unemployment, poverty, and urban plight.
Greenbelt Towns (1933 - 1935) Rexford Tugwell
City Functional
1940s, developed with the growth of the military and renewed industrialization.
Emphasized functionalism and administrative efficiency. Contributed to the federal government’s increased involvement in local planning after WWII
Sector Theory/Sector Model
1939, Homer Hoyt
Theory of city evolution which modified Burgess’s concentric zone model.
Based on early 20th century rail transport and does not make allowances for private cars that enable commuting from cheaper land on the outer boundaries of the city. It assumes more expensive housing radiating from the central business district towards open spaces and higher grounds. Less expensive housing takes whatever land is left over.
Multiple Nuclei Model
1945, Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman
Model of city evolution based on Chicago and described in the 1945 article, “The Nature of Cities”.
Cities may have originated with a central business district, but other smaller business areas develop on the outskirts near more expensive housing areas to accommodate shorter commute times.
Harris and Ullman argue that cities do not grow around a single nucleus, but several. Each nucleus acts like a growth point which creates multiple business nodes across other parts of the city.
Agrarian Philosophy (when, main ideas, key people)
1880s. Belief that a life rooted in agriculture is the most humanly valuable; values rural society as superior to urban society.
Reflected in the largely rural settlement of Colonial America.
Chief proponents: Thomas Jefferson, George Washington
