mirror of
https://github.com/tonytins/citylimits.git
synced 2025-03-16 04:41:24 +00:00
698 lines
37 KiB
HTML
698 lines
37 KiB
HTML
|
<html>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<head>
|
||
|
<title>History Of Cities And City Planning</title>
|
||
|
</head>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<body>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<h1>History Of Cities And City Planning</h1>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<h1>By Cliff Ellis</h1>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<h2>Introduction</h2>
|
||
|
|
||
|
The building of cities has a long and complex history. Although city
|
||
|
planning as an organized profession has existed for less than a
|
||
|
century, all cities display various degrees of forethought and
|
||
|
conscious design in their layout and functioning. <p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Early humans led a nomadic existence, relying on hunting and gathering
|
||
|
for sustenance. Between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago, systematic
|
||
|
cultivation of plants and the domestication of animals allowed for
|
||
|
more permanent settlements. During the fourth millennium B.C., the
|
||
|
requirements for the "urban revolution" were finally met: the
|
||
|
production of a surplus of storable food, a system of writing, a more
|
||
|
complex social organization, and technological advances such as the
|
||
|
plough, potter's wheel, loom, and metallurgy.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Cities exist for many reasons, and the diversity of urban forms can be
|
||
|
traced to the complex functions that cities perform. Cities serve as
|
||
|
centers of storage, trade, and manufacture. The agricultural surplus
|
||
|
from the surrounding countryside is processed and distributed in
|
||
|
cities. Cities also grew up around marketplaces, where goods from
|
||
|
distant places could be exchanged for local products. Throughout
|
||
|
history, cities have been founded at the intersections of
|
||
|
transportation routes, or at points where goods must shift from one
|
||
|
mode of transportation to another, as at river and ocean ports.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Religious elements have been crucial throughout urban history. Ancient
|
||
|
peoples had sacred places, often associated with cemeteries or
|
||
|
shrines, around which cities grew. Ancient cities usually had large
|
||
|
temple precincts with monumental religious buildings. Many medieval
|
||
|
cities were built near monasteries and cathedrals.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Cities often provide protection in a precarious world. During attacks,
|
||
|
the rural populace could flee behind city walls, where defence forces
|
||
|
assembled to repel the enemy. The wall served this purpose for
|
||
|
millennia, until the invention of heavy artillery rendered walls
|
||
|
useless in warfare. With the advent of modern aerial warfare, cities
|
||
|
have become prime targets for destruction rather than safe havens.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Cities serve as centers of government. In particular, the emergence of
|
||
|
the great nation-states of Europe between 1400 and 1800 led to the
|
||
|
creation of new capital cities or the investing of existing cities
|
||
|
with expanded governmental functions.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Washington, D.C., for example, displays the monumental buildings,
|
||
|
radial street pattern, and large public spaces typical of capital
|
||
|
cities.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Cities, with their concentration of talent, mixture of peoples, and
|
||
|
economic surplus, have provided a fertile ground for the evolution of
|
||
|
human culture: the arts, scientific research, and technical
|
||
|
innovation. They serve as centers of communication, where new ideas
|
||
|
and information are spread to the surrounding territory and to foreign
|
||
|
lands.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<h2>Constraints on City Form</h2>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Cities are physical artifacts inserted into a preexisting natural
|
||
|
world, and natural constraints must be respected if a settlement is to
|
||
|
survive and prosper. Cities must conform to the landscape in which
|
||
|
they are located, although technologies have gradually been developed
|
||
|
to reorganize the land to suit human purposes. Moderately sloping land
|
||
|
provides the best urban site, but spectacular effects have been
|
||
|
achieved on hilly sites such as San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, and
|
||
|
Athens. <p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Climate influences city form. For example, streets have been aligned
|
||
|
to take advantage of cooling breezes, and arcades designed to shield
|
||
|
pedestrians from sun and rain. The architecture of individual
|
||
|
buildings often reflects adaptations to temperature, rainfall, snow,
|
||
|
wind and other climatic characteristics.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Cities must have a healthy water supply, and locations along rivers
|
||
|
and streams, or near underground watercourses, have always been
|
||
|
favored. Many large modern cities have outgrown their local water
|
||
|
supplies and rely upon distant water sources diverted by elaborate
|
||
|
systems of pipes and canals.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
City location and internal structure have been profoundly influenced
|
||
|
by natural transportation routes. Cities have often been sited near
|
||
|
natural harbors, on navigable rivers, or along land routes determined
|
||
|
by regional topography.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Finally, cities have had to survive periodic natural disasters such as
|
||
|
earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, and floods. The San Francisco
|
||
|
earthquake of 1906 demonstrated how natural forces can undo decades of
|
||
|
human labor in a very short time.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<h2>Elements of Urban Structure</h2>
|
||
|
|
||
|
City planners must weave a complex, ever-changing array of elements
|
||
|
into a working whole: that is the perennial challenge of city
|
||
|
planning. The physical elements of the city can be divided into three
|
||
|
categories: networks, buildings, and open spaces. Many alternative
|
||
|
arrangements of these components have been tried throughout history,
|
||
|
but no ideal city form has ever been agreed upon. Lively debates about
|
||
|
the best way to arrange urban anatomies continue to rage, and show no
|
||
|
signs of abating. <p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<h3>Networks</h3>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Every modern city contains an amazing array of pathways to carry flows
|
||
|
of people, goods, water, energy, and information. Transportation
|
||
|
networks are the largest and most visible of these. Ancient cities
|
||
|
relied on streets, most of them quite narrow by modern standards, to
|
||
|
carry foot traffic and carts. The modern city contains a complex
|
||
|
hierarchy of transportation channels, ranging from ten-lane freeways
|
||
|
to sidewalks. In the United States, the bulk of trips are carried by
|
||
|
the private automobile, with mass transit a distant second. American
|
||
|
cities display the low-density sprawl characteristic of auto-centered
|
||
|
urban development. In contrast, many European cities have the high
|
||
|
densities necessary to support rail transit. <p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Modern cities rely on complex networks of utilities. When cities were
|
||
|
small, obtaining pure water and disposing of wastes was not a major
|
||
|
problem, but cities with large populations and high densities require
|
||
|
expensive public infrastructure. During the nineteenth century, rapid
|
||
|
urban growth and industrialization caused overcrowding, pollution, and
|
||
|
disease in urban areas. After the connection between impure water and
|
||
|
disease was established, American and European cities began to install
|
||
|
adequate sewer and water systems. Since the late nineteenth century,
|
||
|
cities have also been laced with wires and conduits carrying
|
||
|
electricity, gas, and communications signals.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<h3>Buildings</h3>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Buildings are the most visible elements of the city, the features that
|
||
|
give each city its unique character. Residential structures occupy
|
||
|
almost half of all urban land, with the building types ranging from
|
||
|
scattered single-family homes to dense high-rise apartments.
|
||
|
Commercial buildings are clustered downtown and at various subcenters,
|
||
|
with skyscrapers packed into the central business district and
|
||
|
low-rise structures prevailing elsewhere, although tall buildings are
|
||
|
becoming more common in the suburbs. Industrial buildings come in many
|
||
|
forms ranging from large factory complexes in industrial districts to
|
||
|
small workshops. <p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
City planners engage in a constant search for the proper arrangement
|
||
|
of these different types of land use, paying particular attention to
|
||
|
the compatibility of different activities, population densities,
|
||
|
traffic generation, economic efficiency, social relationships, and the
|
||
|
height and bulk of buildings.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<h3>Open Spaces</h3>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Open space is sometimes treated as a leftover, but it contributes
|
||
|
greatly to the quality of urban life. "Hard" spaces such as plazas,
|
||
|
malls, and courtyards provide settings for public activities of all
|
||
|
kinds. "Soft" spaces such as parks, gardens, lawns, and nature
|
||
|
preserves provide essential relief from harsh urban conditions and
|
||
|
serve as space for recreational activities. These "amenities"
|
||
|
increasingly influence which cities will be perceived as desirable
|
||
|
places to live. <p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<h2>Evolution of Urban Form</h2>
|
||
|
|
||
|
The first true urban settlements appeared around 3,000 B.C. in ancient
|
||
|
Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley. Ancient cities displayed
|
||
|
both "organic" and "planned" types of urban form. These societies had
|
||
|
elaborate religious, political, and military hierarchies. Precincts
|
||
|
devoted to the activities of the elite were often highly planned and
|
||
|
regular in form. In contrast, residential areas often grew by a slow
|
||
|
process of accretion, producing complex, irregular patterns that we
|
||
|
term "organic." Two typical features of the ancient city are the wall
|
||
|
and the citadel: the wall for defense in regions periodically swept by
|
||
|
conquering armies, and the citadel -- a large, elevated precinct
|
||
|
within the city -- devoted to religious and state functions. <p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Greek cities did not follow a single pattern. Cities growing slowly
|
||
|
from old villages often had an irregular, organic form, adapting
|
||
|
gradually to the accidents of topography and history. Colonial cities,
|
||
|
however, were planned prior to settlement using the grid system. The
|
||
|
grid is easy to lay out, easy to comprehend, and divides urban land
|
||
|
into uniform rectangular lots suitable for development.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
The Romans engaged in extensive city-building activities as they
|
||
|
consolidated their empire. Rome itself displayed the informal
|
||
|
complexity created by centuries of organic growth, although particular
|
||
|
temple and public districts were highly planned. In contrast, the
|
||
|
Roman military and colonial towns were laid out in a variation of the
|
||
|
grid. Many European cities, like London and Paris, sprang from these
|
||
|
Roman origins.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
We usually associate medieval cities with narrow winding streets
|
||
|
converging on a market square with a cathedral and city hall. Many
|
||
|
cities of this period display this pattern, the product of thousands
|
||
|
of incremental additions to the urban fabric. However, new towns
|
||
|
seeded throughout undeveloped regions of Europe were based upon the
|
||
|
familiar grid. In either case, large encircling walls were built for
|
||
|
defense against marauding armies; new walls enclosing more land were
|
||
|
built as the city expanded and outgrew its former container.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
During the Renaissance, architects began to systematically study the
|
||
|
shaping of urban space, as though the city itself were a piece of
|
||
|
architecture that could be given an aesthetically pleasing and
|
||
|
functional order. Many of the great public spaces of Rome and other
|
||
|
Italian cities date from this era. Parts of old cities were rebuilt to
|
||
|
create elegant squares, long street vistas, and symmetrical building
|
||
|
arrangements. Responding to advances in firearms during the fifteenth
|
||
|
century, new city walls were designed with large earthworks to deflect
|
||
|
artillery, and star-shaped points to provide defenders with sweeping
|
||
|
lines of fire. Spanish colonial cities in the New World were built
|
||
|
according to rules codified in the Laws of the Indies of 1573,
|
||
|
specifying an orderly grid of streets with a central plaza, defensive
|
||
|
wall, and uniform building style.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
We associate the baroque city with the emergence of great
|
||
|
nation-states between 1600 and 1750. Ambitious monarchs constructed
|
||
|
new palaces, courts, and bureaucratic offices. The grand scale was
|
||
|
sought in urban public spaces: long avenues, radial street networks,
|
||
|
monumental squares, geometric parks and gardens. Versailles is a clear
|
||
|
expression of this city-building model; Washington, D.C. is an example
|
||
|
from the United States. Baroque principles of urban design were used
|
||
|
by Baron Haussmann in his celebrated restructuring of Paris between
|
||
|
1853 and 1870. Haussmann carved broad new thoroughfares through the
|
||
|
tangled web of old Parisian streets, linking major subcenters of the
|
||
|
city with one another in a pattern which has served as a model for
|
||
|
many other modernization plans.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Toward the latter half of the eighteenth century, particularly in
|
||
|
America, the city as a setting for commerce assumed primacy. The
|
||
|
buildings of the bourgeoisie expand along with their owners'
|
||
|
prosperity: banks, office buildings, warehouses, hotels, and small
|
||
|
factories. New towns founded during this period were conceived as
|
||
|
commercial enterprises, and the neutral grid was the most effective
|
||
|
means to divide land up into parcels for sale. The city became a
|
||
|
checkerboard on which players speculated on shifting land values. No
|
||
|
longer would religious, political, and cultural imperatives shape
|
||
|
urban development; rather, the market would be allowed to determine
|
||
|
the pattern of urban growth. New York, Philadelphia, and Boston around
|
||
|
1920 exemplify the commercial city of this era, with their bustling,
|
||
|
mixed-use waterfront districts.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<h2>Transition to the Industrial City</h2>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Cities have changed more since the Industrial Revolution than in all
|
||
|
the previous centuries of their existence. New York had a population
|
||
|
of about 313,000 in 1840 but had reached 4,767,000 in 1910. Chicago
|
||
|
exploded from 4.000 to 2,185,000 during the same period. Millions of
|
||
|
rural dwellers no longer needed on farms flocked to the cities, where
|
||
|
new factories churned out products for the new markets made accessible
|
||
|
by railroads and steamships. In the United States, millions of
|
||
|
immigrants from Europe swelled the urban populations. Increasingly,
|
||
|
urban economies were being woven more rightly into the national and
|
||
|
international economies. <p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Technological innovations poured forth, many with profound impacts on
|
||
|
urban form. Railroad tracks were driven into the heart of the city.
|
||
|
Internal rail transportation systems greatly expanded the radius of
|
||
|
urban settlement: horsecars beginning in the 1830s, cable cars in the
|
||
|
1870s, and electric trolleys in the 1880s. In the 1880s, the first
|
||
|
central power plants began providing electrical power to urban areas.
|
||
|
The rapid communication provided by the telegraph and the telephone
|
||
|
allowed formerly concentrated urban activities to disperse across a
|
||
|
wider field.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
The industrial city still focused on the city center, which contained
|
||
|
both the central business district, defined by large office buildings,
|
||
|
and substantial numbers of factory and warehouse structures. Both
|
||
|
trolleys and railroad systems converged on the center of the city,
|
||
|
which boasted the premier entertainment and shopping establishments.
|
||
|
The working class lived in crowded districts close to the city center,
|
||
|
near their place of employment.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Early American factories were located outside of major cities along
|
||
|
rivers which provided water power for machinery. After steam power
|
||
|
became widely available in the 1930s, factories could be located
|
||
|
within the city in proximity to port facilities, rail lines, and the
|
||
|
urban labor force. Large manufacturing zones emerged within the major
|
||
|
northeastern and midwestern cities such as Pittsburgh, Detroit, and
|
||
|
Cleveland. But by the late nineteenth century, factory
|
||
|
decentralization had already begun, as manufacturers sought larger
|
||
|
parcels of land away from the congestion of the city. Gary, Indiana,
|
||
|
for example, was founded in 1906 on the southern shore of Lake
|
||
|
Michigan by the United States Steel Company.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
The increasing crowding, pollution, and disease in the central city
|
||
|
produced a growing desire to escape to a healthier environment in the
|
||
|
suburbs. The upper classes had always been able to retreat to homes in
|
||
|
the countryside. Beginning in the 1830s, commuter railroads enabled
|
||
|
the upper middle class to commute in to the city center. Horsecar
|
||
|
lines were built in many cities between the 1830s and 1880s, allowing
|
||
|
the middle class to move out from the central cities into more
|
||
|
spacious suburbs. Finally, during the 1890s electric trolleys and
|
||
|
elevated rapid transit lines proliferated, providing cheap urban
|
||
|
transportation for the majority of the population.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
The central business district of the city underwent a radical
|
||
|
transformation with the development of the skyscraper between 1870 and
|
||
|
1900. These tall buildings were not technically feasible until the
|
||
|
invention of the elevator and steel-frame construction methods.
|
||
|
Skyscrapers reflect the dynamics of the real estate market; the tall
|
||
|
building extracts the maximum economic value from a limited parcel of
|
||
|
land. These office buildings housed the growing numbers of
|
||
|
white-collar employees in banking, finance, management, and business
|
||
|
services, all manifestations of the shift from an economy of small
|
||
|
firms to one of large corporations.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<h3>The Form of the Modern City
|
||
|
in the Age of the Automobile</h3>
|
||
|
|
||
|
The city of today may be divided into two parts: <p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<ul>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<li>An inner zone, coextensive with the boundaries of the old industrial city.
|
||
|
|
||
|
<li>Suburban areas, dating from the 1920s, which have been designed for the automobile from the beginning.
|
||
|
|
||
|
</ul>
|
||
|
|
||
|
The central business districts of American cities have become centers
|
||
|
of information processing, finance, and administration rather than
|
||
|
manufacturing. White-collar employees in these economic sectors
|
||
|
commute in from the suburbs on a network of urban freeways built
|
||
|
during the 1950s and 1960s; this "hub-and-wheel" freeway pattern can
|
||
|
be observed on many city maps. New bridges have spanned rivers and
|
||
|
bays, as in New York and San Francisco, linking together formerly
|
||
|
separate cities into vast urbanized regions. <p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Waves of demolition and rebuilding have produced "Manhattanized"
|
||
|
downtowns across the land. During the 1950s and 1960s, urban renewal
|
||
|
programs cleared away large areas of the old city, releasing the land
|
||
|
for new office buildings, convention centers, hotels, and sports
|
||
|
complexes. Building surges have converted the downtowns of American
|
||
|
cities into forests of tall office buildings. More recently, office
|
||
|
functions not requiring a downtown location have been moved to huge
|
||
|
office parks in the suburbs.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Surrounding the central business area lies a large band of old
|
||
|
mixed-use and residential buildings which hose the urban poor. High
|
||
|
crime, low income, deteriorating services, inadequate housing, and
|
||
|
intractable social problems plague these neglected areas of urban
|
||
|
America. The manufacturing jobs formerly available to inner city
|
||
|
residents are no longer there, and resources have not been committed
|
||
|
to replace them.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
These inner city areas have been left behind by a massive migration to
|
||
|
the suburbs, which began in the late nineteenth century but
|
||
|
accelerated in the 1920s with the spread of the automobile. Freeway
|
||
|
building after World War II opened up even larger areas of suburban
|
||
|
land, which were quickly filled by people fleeing central city
|
||
|
decline. Today, more people live in suburbs than in cities proper.
|
||
|
Manufacturers have also moved their production facilities to suburban
|
||
|
locations which have freeway and rail accessibility.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Indeed, we have reached a new stage of urbanization beyond the
|
||
|
metropolis. Most major cities are no longer focused exclusively on the
|
||
|
traditional downtown. New subcenters have arisen round the periphery,
|
||
|
and these subcenters supply most of the daily needs of their adjacent
|
||
|
populations. The old metropolis has become a multi-centered urban
|
||
|
region. In turn, many of these urban regions have expanded to the
|
||
|
point where they have coalesced into vast belts of urbanization --
|
||
|
what the geographer Jean Gottman termed "megalopolis." The prime
|
||
|
example is the eastern seaboard of the United States from Boston to
|
||
|
Washington. The planner C.A. Doxiadis has speculated that similar vast
|
||
|
corridors of urbanization will appear throughout the world during the
|
||
|
next century. Thus far, American planners have not had much success in
|
||
|
imposing a rational form on this process. However, New Town and
|
||
|
greenbelt programs in Britain and the Scandinavian countries have, to
|
||
|
some extent, prevented formless sprawl from engulfing the countryside.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<h3>The Economics of Urban Areas</h3>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Since the 1950s, city planners have increasingly paid attention to the
|
||
|
economics of urban areas. When many American cities experienced fiscal
|
||
|
crises during the 1970s, urban financial management assumed even
|
||
|
greater importance. Today, planners routinely assess the economic
|
||
|
consequences of all major changes in the form of the city. <p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Several basic concepts underlie urban and regional economic analysis.
|
||
|
First, cities cannot grow if their residents simply provide services
|
||
|
for one another. The city must create products which can be sold to an
|
||
|
external purchaser, bringing in money which can be reinvested in new
|
||
|
production facilities and raw materials. This "economic base" of
|
||
|
production for external markets is crucial. Without it, the economic
|
||
|
engine of the city grinds to a halt.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Once the economic base is established, an elaborate internal market
|
||
|
can evolve. This market includes the production of goods and services
|
||
|
for businesses and residents within the city. Obviously, a large part
|
||
|
of the city's physical plant is devoted to facilities for internal
|
||
|
transactions: retail stores of all kinds, restaurants, local
|
||
|
professional services, and so on.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Modern cities are increasingly engaged in competition for economic
|
||
|
resources such as industrial plants, corporate headquarters,
|
||
|
high-technology firms, and government facilities. Cities try to lure
|
||
|
investment with an array of features: low tax rates, improved
|
||
|
transportation and utility infrastructure, cheap land, and skilled
|
||
|
labor force. Amenities such as climate, proximity to recreation,
|
||
|
parks, elegant architecture, and cultural activities influence the
|
||
|
location decisions of businesses and individuals. Many older cities
|
||
|
have difficulty surviving in this new economic game. Abandoned by
|
||
|
traditional industries, they're now trying to create a new economic
|
||
|
base involving growth sectors such as high technology.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Today, cities no longer compete in mere regional or national markets:
|
||
|
the market is an international one. Multinational firms close plants
|
||
|
in Chicago or Detroit and build replacements in Asia or Latin America.
|
||
|
Foreign products dominate whole sectors of the American consumer goods
|
||
|
market. Huge sums of money shift around the globe in instantaneous
|
||
|
electronic transactions. Cities must struggle for survival in a
|
||
|
volatile environment in which the rules are always changing. This
|
||
|
makes city planning even more challenging than before.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<h2>Modern City Planning</h2>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Modern city planning can be divided into two distinct but related
|
||
|
types of planning. visionary city planning proposes radical changes in
|
||
|
the form of the city, often in conjunction with sweeping changes in
|
||
|
the social and economic order. Institutionalized city planning is
|
||
|
lodged within the existing structures of government, and modifies
|
||
|
urban growth processes in moderate, pragmatic ways. It is constrained
|
||
|
by the prevailing alignment of political and economic forces within
|
||
|
the city. <p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<h3>Visionary or Utopian City Planning</h3>
|
||
|
|
||
|
People have imagined ideal cities for millennia. Plato's Republic was
|
||
|
an ideal city, although lacking in the spatial detail of later
|
||
|
schemes. Renaissance architects designed numerous geometric cities,
|
||
|
and ever since architects have been the chief source of imaginative
|
||
|
urban proposals. In the twentieth century, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd
|
||
|
Wright, Paolo Soleri, and dozens of other architects have designed
|
||
|
cities on paper. Although few have been realized in pure form, they
|
||
|
have influenced the layout of many new towns and urban redevelopment
|
||
|
projects. <p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
In his "Contemporary City for Three Million People" of 1922 and
|
||
|
"Radiant City" of 1935, Le Corbusier advocated a high-density urban
|
||
|
alternative, with skyscraper office buildings and mid-rise apartments
|
||
|
placed within park-like open spaces. Different land uses were located
|
||
|
in separate districts, forming a rigid geometric pattern with a
|
||
|
sophisticated system of superhighways and rail transit.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Frank Lloyd Wright envisioned a decentralized low-density city in
|
||
|
keeping with his distaste for large cities and belief in frontier
|
||
|
individualism. The Broadacre City plan of 1935 is a large grid of
|
||
|
arterials spread across the countryside, with most of the internal
|
||
|
space devoted to single-family homes on large lots. Areas are also
|
||
|
carefully set aside for small farms, light industry, orchards,
|
||
|
recreation areas, and other urban facilities. A network of
|
||
|
superhighways knits the region together, so spatially dispersed
|
||
|
facilities are actually very close in terms of travel time. In many
|
||
|
ways, Wright's Broadacre City resembles American suburban and exurban
|
||
|
developments of the post-WWII period.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Many other utopian plans could be catalogued, but the point is that
|
||
|
planners and architects have generated a complex array of urban
|
||
|
patterns from which to draw ideas and inspiration. Most city planners,
|
||
|
however, do not work on a blank canvas; they can only make incremental
|
||
|
changes to an urban scene already shaped by a complicated historical
|
||
|
process.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<h3>Institutionalized City Planning</h3>
|
||
|
|
||
|
The form of the city is determined primarily by thousands of private
|
||
|
decisions to construct buildings, within a framework of public
|
||
|
infrastructure and regulations administered by the city, state, and
|
||
|
federal governments. City planning actions can have enormous impacts
|
||
|
on land values. From the point of view of land economics, the city is
|
||
|
an enormous playing field on which thousands of competitors struggle
|
||
|
to capture value by constructing or trading land and buildings. The
|
||
|
goal of city planning is to intervene in this game in order to protect
|
||
|
widely shared public values such as health, safety, environmental
|
||
|
quality, social equality, and aesthetics. <p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
The roots of American city planning lie in an array of reform efforts
|
||
|
of the late nineteenth century: the Parks movement, the City Beautiful
|
||
|
movement, campaigns for housing regulations, the Progressive movement
|
||
|
for government reform, and efforts to improve public health through
|
||
|
the provision of sanitary sewers and clean water supplies. The First
|
||
|
National Conference on City Planning occurred in 1909, the same year
|
||
|
as Daniel Burnham's famous Plan of Chicago. That date may be used to
|
||
|
mark the inauguration of the new profession. The early city planners
|
||
|
actually came from diverse backgrounds such as architecture, landscape
|
||
|
architecture, engineering, and law, but they shared a common desire to
|
||
|
produce a more orderly urban pattern.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
The zoning of land became, and still is, the most potent instrument
|
||
|
available to American city planners for controlling urban development.
|
||
|
Zoning is basically the dividing of the city into discrete areas
|
||
|
within which only certain land uses and types of buildings can be
|
||
|
constructed. The rationale is that certain activities of building
|
||
|
types don't mix well; factories and homes, for example. Illogical
|
||
|
mixtures create nuisances for the parties involved and lower land
|
||
|
values. After several decades of gradual development, land-use zoning
|
||
|
received legal approval from the Supreme Court in 1926.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Zoning isn't the same as planning: it is a legal tool for the
|
||
|
implementation of plans. Zoning should be closely integrated with a
|
||
|
Master Plan or Comprehensive Plan that spells out a logical path for
|
||
|
the city's future in areas such as land use, transportation, parks and
|
||
|
recreation, environmental quality, and public works construction. In
|
||
|
the early days of zoning this was often neglected, but this lack of
|
||
|
coordination between zoning and planning is less common now.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
The other important elements of existing city planning are subdivision
|
||
|
regulations and environmental regulations. Subdivision regulations
|
||
|
require that land being subdivided for development be provided with
|
||
|
adequate street, sewers, water, schools, utilities, and various design
|
||
|
features. The goal is to prevent shabby, deficient developments that
|
||
|
produce headaches for both their residents and the city. Since the
|
||
|
late 1960s, environmental regulations have exerted a stronger
|
||
|
influence on patterns of urban growth by restricting development in
|
||
|
floodplains, on unstable slopes, on earthquake faults, or near
|
||
|
sensitive natural areas. Businesses have been forced to reduce smoke
|
||
|
emissions and the disposal of wastes has been more closely monitored.
|
||
|
Overall, the pace of environmental degradation has been slowed, but
|
||
|
certainly not stopped, and a dismaying backlog of environmental
|
||
|
hazards remains to be cleaned up. City planners have plenty of work to
|
||
|
do as we move into the twenty-first century.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<h2>Conclusion: Good City Form</h2>
|
||
|
|
||
|
What is the good city? We are unlikely to arrive at an unequivocal
|
||
|
answer; the diversity of human needs and tastes frustrates all
|
||
|
attempts to provide recipes or instruction manuals for the building of
|
||
|
cities. However, we can identify the crucial dimensions of city
|
||
|
performance, and specify the many ways in which cities can achieve
|
||
|
success along these dimensions. <p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
A most useful guide in this enterprise is Kevin Lynch's A Theory of
|
||
|
Good City Form (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 1981). Lynch offers five
|
||
|
basic dimensions of city performance: vitality, sense, fit, access,
|
||
|
and control. To these he adds two "meta-criteria," efficiency and
|
||
|
justice.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
For Lynch, a vital city successfully fulfils the biological needs of
|
||
|
its inhabitants, and provides a safe environment for their activities.
|
||
|
A sensible city is organized so that its residents can perceive and
|
||
|
understand the city's form and function. A city with good fit provides
|
||
|
the buildings, spaces, and networks required for its residents to
|
||
|
pursue their projects successfully. An accessible city allows people
|
||
|
of all ages and background to gain the activities, resources,
|
||
|
services, and information that they need. A city with good control is
|
||
|
arranged so that its citizens have a say in the management of the
|
||
|
spaces in which they work and reside.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Finally, an efficient city achieves the goals listed above at the
|
||
|
least cost, and balances the achievement of the goals with one
|
||
|
another. They cannot all be maximized at the same time. And a just
|
||
|
city distributes benefits among its citizens according to some fair
|
||
|
standard. Clearly, these two meta-criteria raise difficult issues
|
||
|
which will continue to spark debates for the foreseeable future.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
These criteria tell aspiring city builders where to aim, while
|
||
|
acknowledging the diverse ways of achieving good city form. Cities are
|
||
|
endlessly fascinating because each is unique, the product of decades,
|
||
|
centuries, or even millennia of historical evolution. As we walk
|
||
|
through city streets, we walk through time, encountering the
|
||
|
city-building legacy of past generations. Paris, Venice, Rome, New
|
||
|
York, Chicago, San Francisco -- each has its glories and its failures.
|
||
|
In theory, we should be able to learn the lessons of history and build
|
||
|
cities that our descendants will admire and wish to preserve. That
|
||
|
remains a constant challenge for all those who undertake the task of
|
||
|
city planning.
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<hr>
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
<h2>Micropolis, Unix Version.</h2>
|
||
|
This game was released for the Unix platform
|
||
|
in or about 1990 and has been modified for inclusion in the One Laptop
|
||
|
Per Child program. Copyright © 1989 - 2007 Electronic Arts Inc. If
|
||
|
you need assistance with this program, you may contact:
|
||
|
<a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Micropolis">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Micropolis</a> or email <a
|
||
|
href="mailto:micropolis@laptop.org">micropolis@laptop.org</a>.
|
||
|
</p>
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
|
||
|
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
|
||
|
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at
|
||
|
your option) any later version.
|
||
|
</p>
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
|
||
|
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
|
||
|
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
|
||
|
General Public License for more details. You should have received a
|
||
|
copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If
|
||
|
not, see <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/">http://www.gnu.org/licenses/</a>.
|
||
|
</p>
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<h3 align="center">ADDITIONAL TERMS per GNU GPL Section 7</h3>
|
||
|
|
||
|
</p>
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
No trademark or publicity rights are granted. This license does NOT
|
||
|
give you any right, title or interest in the trademark SimCity or any
|
||
|
other Electronic Arts trademark. You may not distribute any
|
||
|
modification of this program using the trademark SimCity or claim any
|
||
|
affliation or association with Electronic Arts Inc. or its employees.
|
||
|
</p>
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
Any propagation or conveyance of this program must include this
|
||
|
copyright notice and these terms.
|
||
|
</p>
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
If you convey this program (or any modifications of it) and assume
|
||
|
contractual liability for the program to recipients of it, you agree
|
||
|
to indemnify Electronic Arts for any liability that those contractual
|
||
|
assumptions impose on Electronic Arts.
|
||
|
</p>
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
You may not misrepresent the origins of this program; modified
|
||
|
versions of the program must be marked as such and not identified as
|
||
|
the original program.
|
||
|
</p>
|
||
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
This disclaimer supplements the one included in the General Public
|
||
|
License. <b>TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, THIS
|
||
|
PROGRAM IS PROVIDED TO YOU "AS IS," WITH ALL FAULTS, WITHOUT WARRANTY
|
||
|
OF ANY KIND, AND YOUR USE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. THE ENTIRE RISK OF
|
||
|
SATISFACTORY QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE RESIDES WITH YOU. ELECTRONIC ARTS
|
||
|
DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY WARRANTIES,
|
||
|
INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY,
|
||
|
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY
|
||
|
RIGHTS, AND WARRANTIES (IF ANY) ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING,
|
||
|
USAGE, OR TRADE PRACTICE. ELECTRONIC ARTS DOES NOT WARRANT AGAINST
|
||
|
INTERFERENCE WITH YOUR ENJOYMENT OF THE PROGRAM; THAT THE PROGRAM WILL
|
||
|
MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS; THAT OPERATION OF THE PROGRAM WILL BE
|
||
|
UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT THE PROGRAM WILL BE COMPATIBLE
|
||
|
WITH THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE OR THAT ANY ERRORS IN THE PROGRAM WILL BE
|
||
|
CORRECTED. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN ADVICE PROVIDED BY ELECTRONIC ARTS OR
|
||
|
ANY AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY. SOME
|
||
|
JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF OR LIMITATIONS ON IMPLIED
|
||
|
WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATIONS ON THE APPLICABLE STATUTORY RIGHTS OF A
|
||
|
CONSUMER, SO SOME OR ALL OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS MAY
|
||
|
NOT APPLY TO YOU.</b>
|
||
|
</p>
|
||
|
</body>
|
||
|
|
||
|
</html>
|