Transcript PHASE I: Urban Reform in the 19th Century

Planning history in the USA
THE
STATE
Enviro
-nment
Private
sector/
Market
forces
Communit
y interest
groups
US IMMIGRATION by fiscal year, 1820-1900. [U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1990 Statistical Yearbook.
Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1991]”
Urban Reform in the 19th Century
Characteristics of the 19C city in
- Early stages of capitalist development
- Development concentrated in small “gateway” cities
(Atlantic seaboard and along rivers and the Great Lakes
region)
• Private sector control
• Raison d’etre: economic growth
• Weak government/limited intervention in market place
• No planning for orderly development
• Great waves of immigration
• Overcrowded cities
• Housing shortage
• Unsanitary conditions
• Public health hazards
• Disease epidemics (e. g.: yellow fever, malaria, cholera)
19 Century “Planning” Activities:
1. Sanitary Reform
Technological innovations
European influences, and
Incipient planning actions to improve cleanliness of
city and public health conditions:
• introduction of water carriage sewerage systems
(sewers)
• Inventory of sanitary conditions
• Provision of public open space
• Importance of adequate ventilation and sunlight
and urban vegetation
This set of photos, taken on Fifth Street in New York City before and after Waring’s campaign, illustrates the
dramatic effects of environmental sanitation at the end of the nineteenth century. (Museum of the City of New
York)
II. CITY BEAUTIFUL Movement
- Involved actions intended to improve the
appearance of the city as well as improvement in
public design.
CB movement included 4 main elements or
themes:
• Municipal art
• Civic improvement
• Outdoor art
• Classical design
Municipal Art
• promotion of decoration in the city
• addition of sculpture, statues
• public art display – arches, murals,
fountains
• tree planting
• use of color in public spaces
• anti billboards and anti smoke campaigns
Civic Improvement
Sought to temper the effect of industrialization in
the domestic (home and neighborhood)
environment
• Often led by women who promoted:
• Cleanup and beautification of communities
• improvement in appearance of front yards
• Promotion of decorative home gardens
*By 1905 there were 2,426 affiliated civic
improvement societies supporting the American
Planning Movement.
Outdoor Art
- Led by American Park and Outdoor Art
Association (APOAA)
- Frederick Law Olmsted a major figure of APOAA
and - American Civic Association joined
APOAA*. Together they pushed for:
• a National Park System
• city parks for enjoyment working people
• planned urban development
• better housing, civic art, sanitation and traffic
safety.
Classical design
- Led by Architects
Objective: to integrate European classicism and
grand design in American city, including:
• traditional Grecian-Roman design themes, into
city plans.
• See for Example: Daniel Burnham’s Plan of
Chicago
• [But preceded by other examples like Pierre
L’Enfant’s street plan of Washington , D.C. in
1790]
European Architectural Influences
Doric style
Corinthian style
III. Neighborhood building and
housing reform
Individuals and “settlement” workers introduced
humanitarian concerns for women and children
• Sound housing
• Home improvement
• Schools
• Playground
• Spirit of community life
• Overcoming crowding and unsanitary conditions
inside residences
NYC Upper Middle Class Parlor
NYC Tenement Room
The “Settlement” House Movement
European examples:
• England’s first - Toynbee Hall 1884
American imitation:
• New York’s Stanton Hall 1886
• Chicago’s Hull House and many others …
19 Century: The culminating
experience
The 1893 Columbian Exposition
In this “White city of almost 700 acres
Chicagoans and millions of visitors,
accustomed to urban ugliness, saw for the
first time a splendid example of civic
design and beauty in the classic pattern
and on a grand scale, and they liked it.
Indeed it marked the beginning in this
country of orderly arrangement of
extensive buildings and grounds.
Robert Wrigley, Jr. In Kreukeberg, p.58
Creating a vision of the city:
And they came to experience the White City
IV. Comprehensive Planning: The Plan of
Chicago (1901-1905)
“Dream no small dreams.”
Then and now: Dynamic aspects of spatial images.
Where in the world are these structures located?
Discussion?
• 19th Century urban “planning” actions.