Hello Everyone:
Happy Labor (or Labour if you're Canadian) Day. I hope your day was enjoyable. Even though, Labor Day is supposed to be the last hurrah of summer, it's still summer until September 21, so have some fun. Speaking of fun, today, I'm going to take a break from blogging on Detroit, skyscrapers, and other serious topics. Instead, I'm going to present ten historical planners. This comes to us from Franki Rendon of Creative Signals (http://www.creativesignals.com). The source is the University of Florida. There isn't any mention of contemporary planners or for that matter living ones. I'm out in public right now so I'll publish the post and add pictures another time. In the meantime, I've included a link to the infographic that this post is based on. Enjoy.
Piraeus, Athens, Greece
Known as the first Greek city planner. So what happened? Allegedly Hippodamus pioneered urban planning by creating the gridiron street layout know today as the Hippodamian plan for urban street plans. Hippodamus was said to have originated the concept of the "ideal city," which contained 50,000 residents and divided into: the scared, the private, and the public.
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| Miletus Plan travellinkturkey.com |
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| Sir Christopher Wren histparl.ac,uk |
London, England UK
Best-know for St. Paul's Cathedral and the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire of 1666 (make all the 666 jokes you want). After the Great Fire destroyed 13,600 buildings, Sir Wren devised a completely new plan for London, which was ultimately rejected in favor of quick rebuilding. Sir Wren oversaw the rebuilding of some of London's most iconic buildings including: St. Paul's Cathedral, Kensington Palace, and The Old Royal Naval College (Greenwich Hospital). It should be noted that the fire came on heels of the Great Bubonic Plague Epidemic. Just thought I would throw in this factoid.
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| Map of Wren Plan for London londonacnestor.com |
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| Aerial of St. Paul's Cathedral commons.wikimedia.org |
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| Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II indianetzon.com |
Jaipur, India
Famous for creating the planned capital city of Jaipur. As the ruler of the former kingdom of Amber, the maharaja designed Jaipur as a modern commercial hub in accordance with Vedic architectural principles. This sounds interesting. The Maharaja was also an astronomer who built a number of observatories, Jantar Mantar in Jaipur in Jaipur and Delhi.
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| Jaipur showing the Amber Fort hotelsjaipur.com |
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| Pierre Charles L'Enfant en.wikipedia.com |
Pierre Charles L'Enfant (1754-1825)
Washington D.C.
Those of you readers in the United States who do not know who Pierre Charles L'Enfant was, you need to go back to your American history class tout suite. Pierre L'Enfant's claim to fame was conceptualizing Washington D.C. He envisioned a grand European-like capital designed along egalitarian principles for the infant nation. This didn't go over too well with urban officials. The original plan was actually based on Versailles' layout. Although the full plan was never implemented, Pierre Charles L'Enfant's legacy lives on in the such landmarks as the United States Capitol Building.
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| L'Enfant/McMillian Plan nps.gov |
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| United States Capitol Building aoc.gov |
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| Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. olmsted.org |
Various cities
Not to be confused with his father, Central Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. with Calvin Vaux, Frederick Law Olmsted fil founded the first school of urban planned at Harvard in 1898 and created the National Parks Service. he built on his father's legacy of landscape architecture, championing landscape architecture and urban planning education. Law Olmsted, Jr. was also instrumental in establishing the Annual National Planning Conference. The father is considered to be one of the premier urban designers of the second half of the nineteenth century, he also designed a number of new communities that paved the way for sanitation and integrated design. The father is also best-known for his concept of urban open spaces.Frederick Law Olmsted also oversaw park development in a number of American cities and wrote the key legislation establishing the National Parks Service, "America's best idea," in 1916.
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| Daniel H. Burnham c.1910 vintagedesign.com |
Various cities.
Those of you who read Erik Larson's well researched book The Devil in White City, if you haven't pick it up, will be familiar with the man who planned the 1893 Columbine Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. Daniel Burnham didn't simply rest on his laurels after the 1893 Exposition, he went on to built some of the world's first skyscrapers. You can thank him for starting the "how tall is tall" craze. Mr. Burham also layout city plans for Chicago (check out the watercolor by Jules Guerin), Washington D.C., Cleveland, and San Francisco. He is even credited with inventing urban planning. For a more in depth discussion of Daniel Burnham's plan for Chicago, pick up Plan For Chicago by Daniel Hudson. It's a short, not too technical paperback that really does a good job of detailing Daniel Burnham's vision for the Windy City. Daniel Burham is credited with the saying, "Make no little plans, they no magic to stir men's blood..."
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| The main concourse from the 1893 Columbine Exposition chicagohs.org |
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| Jules Guerin illustration for the Burnham Plan for Chicago commons.wikipedia.org |
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| Sir Ebenezer Howard rickmansworthherts.freereserve.co.uk |
Letchworh Garden City and Welwyn Garden City United Kingdom
The man Jane Jacobs does not like. Sir Howard's claim to fame was the establishment of the "Garden City" movement. His book Garden Cities of Tomorrow (1902) was influential in future residential neighborhood design. the concept for the Garden City was places, residences, shops, and parks all within close proximity.
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| Garden City Plan scarysquirrel.org |
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Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann 1st-art-gallery.com |
Paris, France
What discussion of historic urban planners would be complete without mentioning Baron Haussmann. Love him or hate him, was appointed by Napoleon III to oversee the reconstruction of Paris in the nineteenth century. The Paris that we're familiar with today, with the wide boulevards, is due to Baron Haussmann's urban planning. some of Baron Haussmann's reforms included new city parks and an updated water supply and sewer system.
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| Avenue de l'Opera, Camille Pissarro, 1898 en.wikipedia.org |
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| Le Corbusier biography.com |
Chandigarh, India
Le Corbusier was not only known for his great works of modernist architecture but also for reconsidering urban housing principles. His modernist principles not only influenced urban residential decades but also addressed the issues of inadequate urban housing in the early twentieth century. The Swiss-french architect's concept of "City Beautiful" was manifested in Chandigarh, India. Le Corbusier was the one who came up with the concept of "towers in the garden," high-rise apartment buildings set into landscape. His architectural principles included rooftop gardens, raised structures, and open floor plans. On a personal note, both his an Sir Howard's planning concepts are the basis for Park La Brea, thanks, I think.
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| Le Corbusier Plan for Chandigarh, India flickriver.com |
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| Park La Brea lagroveliving.com |
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| Harland Bartholomew slate.com |
Newark, New Jersey and St. Louis, Missouri
Harland Bartholemew was best-known as the first American full-time planner. As the first American full-time planner, Mr. Bartholemew was first commissioned by the city of Newark in 1914 and later by the city of St. Louis in 1916. He also contributed to major urban planning legislation including th Fair Housing Act of 1949. Harland Bartholomew's firm, Harland Bartholomew and Associates, created plans for almost five hundred American cities.
By 2030, the projected growth of cities is sixty percent. So, the challenge is how to design cities that can smartly accommodate growth. Ask a historic preservationist.
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