URBAN DESIGN

THE BEGINNINGS
• SETTLEMENT DESIGN
Agricultural Societies
Rectilinear Plotting
• LAYOUT
Grid (or Rectilinear) – product of the farmer
Circular (Fencing) – product of the herdsman
-- defensive role
Radiocentric – when circular settlements enlarge
-- fortress cities (i.e. Paris)

ANCIENT GREECE  THE ACROPOLIS

 THE AGORA
• LANDSCAPE – powerfully assertive  GREEK TOWNS
• HIGH PLACES – fortified hilltop
-- sacred precinct
• TOWN DESIGN = SENSE OF THE FINITE
-- Aristotle’s ideal size of city = 10,000 – 20,000 people
-- never attempted to overwhelm nature
-- buildings give a sense of human measure to landscape
• THE STREET – not a principal element but as a leftover space for circulation
• PLACE OF ASSEMBLY – market (agora)

ANCIENT ROME  THE REPUBLICAN FORUM

 THE IMPERIAL FORUM
• URBAN DESIGN – Greek: sense of the finite
– Romans: political power and organization
• USE OF SCALE – Greek use of scale is based on human measurements
-- Romans used proportions that would
relate parts of building instead of human measure
• MODULE – Greek use of house as module for town planning
-- Roman use of street pattern as module
-- to achieve a sense of overpowering grandeur
-- made for military government
• THE STREET – Greeks: as a leftover space for circulation
-- Romans: street are built first; buildings came later
• PLACE OF ASSEMBLY – Greeks: market (agora)
-- Romans: market, theater, and arena
MEDIEVAL ERA  PIAZZA DEL CAMPO, SIENA

• DECLINE OF ROME – “Dark Ages”, but not for urban design

• URBAN SETTINGS – Military strongholds, castles, monasteries, towns
• MILITARY STRONGHOLDS – Acropolis and Capitoline Hill
• CASTLES – built atop hills, enclosed by circular walls; radiocentric growth
• MONASTERIES – citadels of learning, laid out in rectilinear pattern
• MEDIEVAL TOWNS
-- like Greek towns, small and finite in size
-- lacks geometry
-- became parts of larger territorial states
-- growth and population created the need for marketplaces

MEDIEVAL ERA TOWN DESIGN

• VISIBLE EXTERIORS suit the viewing conditions of small spaces
• VISTA considerations and HUMAN SCALE – fine accents in landscape
• STREET LAYOUT is functional, although with no logical form
• MEDIEVAL ERA sets the stage for RENAISSANCE
-- skill of builders
-- wealth of bourgeoisie and nobility
-- organization of the military and new force in gunpowder
-- development of political powers and expertise
-- new organizations
-- scholarly knowledge of the church
• 3 MAJOR EVENTS MARKING TRANSITION FROM MEDIEVAL TIMES
-- Dawn of science
-- Fall of Constantinople
-- Discovery of the New World

FROM MEDIEVAL ERA TO RENAISSANCE ERA

• MEDIEVAL URBAN DESIGN were to be discarded
-- sense of scale
-- intimate relation between house and street
• MEDIEVAL SYSTEM OF TOWN DESIGN
-- truly livable; humanist basis
• RENAISSANCE SYSTEM OF TOWN DESIGN
-- the role of the individual as builder of his town was lost
RENAISSANCE – EARLY DEVELOPMENTS
• IDEAL CITIES
-- 1440 (beginning of Renaissance)
-- Leon Battista Alberti – foremost theoretician
-- Alberti’s De Architectura – treats architecture and town design
as single theme (just like Vitruvius)
• ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF EARLY RENAISSANCE
-- Public Works
-- Civic improvement projects
• REBUILDING FERRARA
-- Palazzo Diamenti – most famous structure
-- Biaggio Rossetti – architect and town planner regarded as
one of the world’s earliest modern urban designers
-- Rossetti’s plan:
1. Street widening, new buildings, wall improvement
2. Enlarge the town
3. Carry on with the plan
• LESSONS FROM ROSSETTI’S EFFORT
-- Repair an existing city
-- Plan for enlargement
-- Decide which to concentrate effort
-- Lay down a plan that is logical and realizable
-- Provide framework for others to build upon

“Ferrara is the first MODERN city in Europe”

Jacob Burckhardt, 1860

RENAISSANCE – LEONARDO DA VINCI

• SKETCHED A CITY STRADDLING A RIVER
• RIVER STREAMS – supply water and carry away waste
• MULTILEVELS – for multiple functions
• PROPOSED MOVABLE HOUSES – anticipated the “greenbelt” concept
• SATELLITE TOWNS – for workers
• LESSONS: Growth or functional improvement is not necessarily an advantage
• POPES IN ROME – the “real say” in urban design at that time
RENAISSANCE – REBUILDING ROME
• PROBLEMS: Circulation, defense, water supply, sanitation
• SOLUTION: Popes have to undertake civic improvement projects
• PILGRIMAGE – St. Peter’s Cathedral improved
– Campidoglio (Rome’s city hall) improved
• DOMENICO FONTANA – architect commissioned by Pope Sixtus V
• FONTANA’S PLAN – streets were visually accented using OBELISKS
• OBELISKS - as “stakes”, as GUIDEPOSTS for the whole city
- as SCALE REFERENCE POINTS for successive designers
• DESIGN PRINCIPLE – architecture of ancient Rome
-- new design of early Renaissance

RENAISSANCE – BUILDING GROUPS

• ST. PETER’S CATHEDRAL – Bramante
• TEMPIETTO – miniature version of St. Peter’s Cathedral
• CARLO FONTANA – basilica inside the Colosseum
• BORROWED DESIGN – Renaissance from Medieval, Romans from Greeks
• ANDREA PALLADIO – developed precise theories of proportion and module
• PALLADIO’S PROTOTYPES - Roman country villa (rural)
- Roman Forum (urban)
• PALLADIAN INFLUENCES – George Washington and Thomas Jefferson
• “FOUR BOOKS OF ARCHITECTURE”
– examples of plazas (the modern forum)
• “COLOSSAL” or “GIGANTIC” ORDER – Palladio’s San Giorgio Maggiore

RENAISSANCE – THE CAMPIDOGLIO

• One of MICHELANGELO’s finest works
• Seen at a distance as a whole composition
• EQUESTRIAN STATUE of Marcus Aurelius
-- Serves as Centerpiece or Guidepost
• ENTRANCE RAMPS – widen toward the top
-- perspective effect and stairs appear shorter
-- similarly, SIDE BUILDINGS are not parallel
• Significance of a REMODELLING JOB
RENAISSANCE – URBAN PLAZAS: FRANCE & ENGLAND
• JACQUES ANDROUET DU CERCEAU
-- French architect who visited Rome
-- Brought plaza idea to Paris, France
• INIGO JONES – English architect, brought the Renaissance plaza to London
-- Bedford Square – started in 1631
-- Covent Garden – modeled after Livorno
• OTHER PLAZAS IN LONDON
-- Leicester Square – started in 1635
-- Bloomsbury Square – 1665
-- Six more plazas were built before 1700
• RENAISSANCE PLAZA
– one of the elements of urban design par excellence
-- but did not tie whole city together
-- Rossetti’s Ferrara (street system); Fontana’s Rome (guidepost system)

RENAISSANCE – LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

• PARKS and GARDENS – tie the city together
-- connecting the palace and the town
• VILLA & GARDEN
– rural counterpart of PALACE & PLAZA
• ITALY – gardens are never too large
-- built as TERRACES because of hilly land
• FRANCE – elaborate system of landscape design
-- roots from large HUNTING FORESTS
-- ROND POINTS – high ground intersections
• RICHELIEU – application of “rond points” idea
-- 1630, landscape design of palace started
-- Jacques Lemercier – architect
• ANDRE LENOTRE -- landscape architect of Richelieu
-- Western world’s master of landscape architecture

RENAISSANCE – FRENCH, ENGLISH & ITALIAN LANDSCAPE

• FRENCH – Regarded natural landscape as barbaric
-- Man-made, preferably geometric creations
-- PHILOSOPHY – absolute command of nature
• ENGLISH -- Characterized by an attitude of sympathy with nature
-- PHILOSOPHY – practice of taming nature
• ITALIAN – Terraced garden is best model of gardening in limited space
RENAISSANCE – LENOTRE AND VERSAILLES
• LENOTRE’S MAJOR CLIENT – Louis XIV, the “Sun King” of France
• VERSAILLES – Lenotre’s greatest work, Started in 1670, completed by 1710
-- “Goose Foot”/ patte d’oie -- three roads in a single view
• PIAZZA DEL POPOLO – patte d’oie entrance to Rome
-- appeared accidentally as result of Fontana’s plan
-- not formally finished until early 19th century, by a French architect, incidentally

RENAISSANCE – REBUILDING LONDON

• GREAT PLAGUE – 1666 GREAT FIRE OF LONDON – 1667
• SEVERAL DESIGNERS PROPOSED PLANS
-- Christopher Wren -- Robert Hooke -- John Evelyn -- Valentine Knight
• 1707-1709– laws banning use of combustible mat’ls, led to extensive use of bricks
• JOHN GWYNN– produced plan for London 1766 “London & Westminster Improved”
-- heralded the “Golden Age” of building
• GOLDEN AGE – encompassed a 30-year period
-- ADELPHI TERRACE-- work of the Adam brothers; built along the River Thames
-- BATH – created by architects John Wood, Sr. and Jr.
-- 1702, discovered by the aristocrac -- 1727, rectangular plaza (Queens Square)
-- 1754, great circle (King’s Circus) -- 1767, Royal Crescent
-- EDINBURGH – 1767, Scottish architect James Craig
• END OF LONDON PLAZA ERA – coming of industrial era
RENAISSANCE – DEVELOPMENTS IN PARIS
• REBUILDING OF THE LOUVRE – 1667, Lorenzo Bernini’s designs rejected
-- Claude Perrault – a court physician
-- Viewing conditions same as Palladio’s San Giorgio Maggiore
and Michelangelo’s Campidoglio
• BEAULEVARD–city is enlarged, old walls torn, creating broad, long streets
-- term derived from Dutch word “bulwark”
• 1748 – proposals for new plazas
-- Place de la Concorde – 1757, finished by 1770
• 1789 – French Revolution
• 1793 – new plan for Paris called Plan des Artistes
-- 1748, emphasis on plaza 1793, emphasis on street
• NAPOLEON I – Champs Elysees improvement -- Arch of Triumph
• NAPOLEON III – assigned Baron Georges Eugene Haussmann
-- Jean Charles Adolphe Alphand, landscape architect
MODERN CONCEPTS – IDEAL TOWNS & WORKER TOWNS
• CLAUDE NICOLAS LEDOUX – French architect
-- late 18th and early 19th century, a new era in urban design
-- CHAUX, France (1776) – principal work
• LEDOUX’S DESIGN – an ideal plan where “everything is motivated by necessity”
“Architecture” – Ledoux’s book published in 1804
• ROBERT OWEN – English social reformer
-- NEW LANARK, Scotland (1799)
• OWENITE COMMUNITIES – England and United States
– “New Harmony” in Indiana, by Owen’s son
– “Brook Farm” in Massachusetts by New England transcendentalists
– “Icarus” in Red River, Texas, by Frenchman named Cabet
“Icarus” failed, Cabet joined theMormons in search for the
promised land and helped lay out Salt Lake City
• FRANCOIS FOURIER – French social reformer -- “Phalanstery”
-- “The New World of Industry and Society” – published in 1829
• JAMES SILK BUCKINGHAM – “Victoria”
-- “ National Evils and Practical Remedies” – published in 1849
• ROBERT PEMBERTON – “Happy Colony” in New Zealand
• DR. BENJAMIN RICHARDSON – “Hygeia” in United States
• THOMAS JEFFERSON – “Jeffersonville”
MODERN CONCEPTS – PLANNED INDUSTRIAL TOWNS
• FRANCIS CABOT LOWELL – Georgiaville, RA (1812)
-- Waltham, Massachusetts -- Harrisville, NH (1816) -- Lowell, Massachusetss (1822)
• OLIVE – French architect, anticipated the 20th c. Garden City
– Vesinet, France (1859)
• OTHER INDUSTRIAL TOWNS
– Essen, Germany (1863), Krupp factories called Siedlungen (worker colonies)
-- Pullman, Illinois (1879)
-- Port Sunlight near Liverpool (1887) – W.H. Lever Soap Company
-- Bournville near Birmingham (1889) – Cadbury Chocolate Company
-- Gary, Indiana (1906), laid out by a steel corporation, a “made to order” city
TONY GARNIER – French architect, anticipated modern day zoning
-- “Une Cite Industrielle” (1901-04)
-- Plan is incredibly detailed
-- imaginary site (high plateau and level valley along a river)
-- residential on plateaufactories on valley
-- dam for hydroelectric power
-- hospital on high hill
-- smelting factories and mines at respectful distances
-- locations for sewage plant, abattoir, bakery, and civic center
-- testing grounds for cars and even airplanes!
MODERN CONCEPTS – URBAN DESIGN AND MACHINES
• DON ARTURO SORIA Y MATA – Spanish businessman and engineer
-- created Madrid’s 1st streetcar and telephone system
-- “La Ciudad Lineal” – Linear City
-- Stalingrad – planned linear city
• INVENTIONS INFLUENCING URBAN FORM
– Electricity – Peter Kropotkin (1899)
-- Railroad
• OTHER VISIONARIES
– Edgar Chambless, American vehicles running on rooftops
-- “Motopia” – proposed in England
-- Eugene Henard, French, published “Les Villes de l’Avenir” (1910)
may have influenced Le Corbusier
• ANTONIO SANT’ELIA – Italian futurist
-- “La Citta Nuova” – enormous metropolis
-- inspired by the complex plans for the New York Grand Central area
• METABOLISM GROUP– Japanese architects
-- underwater cities, biological cities,cities changing their own forms,
cities built as pyramids
• OTHER VISIONARIES
– Edward Bellamy, published in 1887 “Looking Backward, 2000-1887”
-- H.G. Wells (1902-1911)

MODERN CONCEPTS – RENEWED ATTITUDE TOWARD

NATURE
• TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES
– not necessarily a sign of progress
• CHIEF SPOKESMEN
- Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (French)
- John Ruskin (English)
- Henry David Thoreau (American)
• ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT
- Led by William Morris, return to simpler
Christian virtues of the Gothic period
- Norman Shaw, created Bedford Park (1875-81)
• GOTHIC REVIVAL IN 19TH CENTURY
“Gothic period was the last original architectural era”
- Frank Lloyd Wright
THE CONSERVATIONISTS AND THE PARK MOVEMENT
• GEORGE PERKINS MARSH – American conservationist
-- the founder of modern conservation
-- “Man and Nature” – published in 1862, an introduction to ecology
• FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED – pioneer of the American park system
-- also a social reformer, concerned w/ moral disintegration in large formless cities
-- also a farmer, landscape design as olution to social ills (i.e urban park)
-- Central Park of New York City won in 1859
-- San Francisco, Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, Montreal, Boston
-- “Public Parks and the Enlargement of Towns” published in 1870
-- Cities – planned for two generations ahead
-- maintain sufficient breathing space
-- design embraces the whole city
• CHARLES ELIOT– completed Olmsted’s Boston park system
• GEORGE KESSLER -- layout of Kansas City park system
• JENS JENSEN -- designed Chicago’s original park system
• ALPHAND -- Haussmann’s landscape architect
-- “the French Olmsted”
• DANIEL SCHREBER -- a physician and educator
-- “Schrebergarten” – small gardens for children; later, used by elderly
-- popularized the idea of the urban playground in Europe
• EXPLORATIONS INTO THE PAST
– ARCHAEOLOGY became a science in 19th century
– CAMILLO SITTE, Viennese architect
-- “An Architect’s Notes and Reflections upon Artistic City Planning”
published in 1889

THE GARDEN CITY MOVEMENT

• EBENEZER HOWARD – An English stenographer
-- “Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Social Reform” published in 1898
-- Proponent of the “Garden City” concept
• LETCHWORTH – the first garden city (1902), located 35 miles from London
-- architects Barry Parker and Raymund Unwin
-- became a satellite of London because factories did not materialize
• WELWYN -- the second garden city (1920), more successful than Letchworth
-- architect Louis de Soissons
THE SCIENTIFIC APPROACH
• HOWARD’S ANALYTICAL APPROACH– city so large & operations so complex
-- Proper understanding can only be gained by full application of precise analysis
• PATRICK GEDDES – Scottish city planner. established tool for analytical approach
-- “Cities in Evolution” published in 1915 -- coined the term “connurbation”
-- laid out some 50 cities in India and Palestine
• MARSH -- interrelationship between MAN and NATURE
• GEDDES -- interrelationship between PEOPLE and CITIES
• CONNURBATION - “the waves of population inflow to large cities, followed
by overcrowding and slum formation, and then the wave of backflow”

THE CITY BEAUTIFUL MOVEMENT

• GOLDEN AGE OF URBAN DESIGN
– From 1890 to the Great Depression (1930s), termed the “City Beautiful Era”
• WORLD’S FAIRS
– as works of civic art -- application of latest technologies; façade architecture;
promise of America come to life
-- as urban renewal operations-- Jackson Park – Chicago World’s Fair,
San Francisco Marina, Treasure Island, SF
• McMILLAN COMMISSION
-- AIA nat’l conference in Washington D.C. (1901)
-- Daniel Burnham, Augustus St. Gaudens, and Frederick Law Olmsted among present
-- plan for improvement of central Washington -- reviving the original L’Enfant plan
• CIVIC CENTERS
– city hall, county court house, library, museum, opera house, and a plaza
• PUBLIC WORKS – BRIDGES, designed as pieces of sculpture
-- RIVERS, made into classical garden terraces
-- COLLEGES and UNIVERSITIES, as visions of classical world
-- RAILROADS, built Roman basilicas and baths
• CITY AS A WHOLE -- Daniel Burnham – father of American city planning
-- plans for Chicago, San Francisco, Manila, etc.
-- “Make no little plans… they have no power to stir men’s blood”
-- last use of French Renaissance principlesapplied at the largest scale possible
• PLANNED RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITIES
– Roland Park, Baltimore (1892): start of commuter suburb
-- Country Club, Kansas City
-- Forest Hills Garden, L.I., New York: commuter suburb for Manhattan (1911)
• MANY DEVELOPMENTS
– American city planning profession -- Zoning introduced in 1916
-- Many lessons from abroaD -- England and garden city movement
-- English architect-planners lectured in US-- English books in city planning
• SUMMARY: CITY BEAUTIFUL ERA--CIVIC CENTER and COMMUTER SUBURB
THE NEW COMMUNITIES MOVEMENT
• PROPONENTS – Henry Wright “Rehousing Urban America” (1934)
-- Clarence Stein “Towards New Towns for America” (1951)
• “SUPERBLOCK” CONCEPT – Answer to problem of through traffic
-- Island of green, bordered by houses and skirted by peripheral automobile roads
-- Best examples -- Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles; Chatham Village, Pittsburgh
-- Community-level development
• RADBURN, NJ– Series of superblocks, not completed due to Depression
-- One of the most important designs conceived for the modern residential community
• “RADBURN” IDEA – Organization of town into cohesive neighborhoods
-- Clarence A. Perry -“The Neighborhood Unit” published in 1929; Community planning
• “TOWN COLONIZATION” CONCEPT -- G. R. Taylor
-- Metropolitan growth through colonization, Reinforces Ebenezer Howard’s belief
-- “Satellite Cities, A Study of Industrial Suburbs” (1915)
-- “The Building of Satellite Towns” (1925)
REGIONAL PLANNING
• ROOTS OF REGIONAL OUTLOOK– Howard & Taylor: satellite colonization
-- Radburn – demonstrated satellite colonization
-- Marsh and Geddes – laid the groundwork
-- Henry Wright and Benton MacKaye: championed the regional outlook
• HENRY WRIGHT AND PLAN OF NEW YORK
– Worked under commission by Clarence Stein
“Report of the Commission on Housing and
Regional Planning for the State of New York”
-- Development of New York
-- Small trade centers for an agriculture society
-- Decline due to cheaper Midwestern farms
-- Industrialization took hold
-- Hudson and Mohawk valleys became spine
-- New York City became the financial heart
and core for a constellation of communities
-- Wright’s plan – one of finest models of regional planning
-- not officially adopted, but recommendations realized
-- led to formation of RPAA
• REGIONAL PLANNING ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK
– 22 counties, 500 municipal districts, 10 million people, NY state, NJ and Conn.
-- Thomas Adams – Scottish planner
2-volume plan produced in 1928 most complete plan study ever done
• BENTON MACKAYE– Originally, a forester
-- “The New Exploration, A Philosophy of Regional Planning” published in 1928
-- Envisioned the “townless highway” and “highwayless towns”
-- Showed NY City as the entry and exit portal for the entire US industrial empire
-- “New Exploration” – the exploration of the wilderness and conservation had
to be expanded to include cities
ACHIEVEMENTS IN EUROPE
• ENGLISH NEW TOWN MOVEMENT
– Sir Anthony Barlow headed commission
“The Report of Royal Commission of Distribution of Industrial Population” (1940)
-- Sir Patrick Abercrombie and J.H. Forshaw
“The County of London Plan” (1943)
-- “New Towns” – Plan of Hook; Plan of Cumbernauld
• OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
– London’s Barbican area
-- Garden cities in France
-- Dourges – 1st garden city in France (1919)
-- Longueau, Tergnier, Lille-le-Deliverance
-- Berlin, Germany – Martin Machler
-- Baku in Russia
-- West Kungsholmen, Stockholm
-- Tapiola, Helsinki in Finland
-- Amsterdam South, Amsterdam in Holland
-- Other countries – Italy, Switzerland, Israel

ARCHITECTS IN URBAN PLANNING

• ELIEL SAARINEN – Prize-winning plan for Helsinki in 1911
-- Teaching of architecture and urban planning
-- “The City” published in 1943
• WALTER GROPIUS– Took same approach to architecture & urban planning
• RICHARD NEUTRA – “Rush City Reformed”
• LE CORBUSIER -- Fused ideas of modern architecture and city form
-- Spokesman for the “International Movement”
-- “Une Ville Contemporaine” – 1922, traceable to Henard’s and Garnier’s ideas
-- “Plan Voisin” (Neighborhood Plan) – 1925; “La Ville Radieuse” – 1935
-- “Le Plan de Paris” – 1937 – “When Cathedrals Were White” – 1947
-- Chandigarh, India – designed the entire city
-- “Concerning Town Planning” – 1948
-- Lewis Mumford – critical of Le Corbusier
-- Helped organize the “Congres International d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM
-- Conceived the “CIAM grid” – graphic file system for recording pertinent
information in an urban study and for explaining a plan
-- “CIAM grid” four component sections: work, residence, circulation, leisure
• MARS Group – The English CIAM organization
-- Proposed a plan for rebuilding London -- Sixteen finger corridors all connected
by a major circulation spine and encircling circulation loop
ARCHITECTS IN URBAN PLANNING
• LOUIS KAHN – Made important designs for central Philadelphia
• KENZO TANGE – Plan for Tokyo
-- Circulation as determinant of urban form
-- New Tokyo over Tokyo Bay, hung on bridges
• FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
-- Followed Howard, Geddes and social reformers
-- “The Disappearing City” – published in 1932
-- “Broadacres” – every family on an acre of land
-- Marin County Civic Center north of SF, Calif.
-- Changed scheme – Full Mile High Superskyscraper
• CONSTANTINE DOXIADIS
– Addressed the urban problem on a worldwide scale
-- Major designs are made for countries where economy and productive system
can be coordinated by policy and decree
-- Best work is in newly developing nations of Africa and Middle East
-- “Architecture in Transition” (1963) – explains Doxiadis’s total view
-- Magazine “Ekistics” – shows Dixiadis’s many plans and programs
-- “Ekistics grid” – system for recording planning data and ordering planning process
-- Town planning as a science which includes planning and design, and contribution
of sociologist, geographer, economist, politician, anthropologist, ecologist, etc.
-- EKISTICS – the science of human settlements
• CHARLES ABRAMS
– Housing as one prime field of endeavor for solving urban problems
-- “Man’s Struggle for Shelter in an Urbanizing World” (1964)
• BUCKMINSTER FULLER
-- “Inventory of World Resources – Human Trends and Needs” (1963)
• LEWIS MUMFORD
-- Authored some twenty books and innumerable articles
-- “The City in History” – published in 1961, summary of Mumford’s thought