Design, Process and Institutions

Although many Anglo-American social historians would like to believe that they have invented planning history, their assumption is incorrect. The field has deeper roots. Its earliest practitioners - architects, archaeologists and classicists - engaged in questions of urban design, the origin of cities and urbanization

Radburn and the American Planning Movement

Many intellectual streams have contributed to the ideology of the American planning movement. Radburn, a partially built, planned, New Jersey settlement, represents the influence of English garden city theories. Radburn\u27s plan was so well designed and rationally organized that it has become a permanent resource for planners who in every generation examine and sometimes adapt it to solve contemporary problems. As a result, it has survived as testimony to the planners\u27 vision of suburban growth. It also represents, however, a neglected promise unfulfilled because of larger currents in American culture

Chester Rapkin: Planner, Teacher, Scholar

The seminal thinkers of the profession are now largely historical figures, few \u27heroes\u27 have emerged to replace them, Michael P. Brooks recently wrote (Brooks, 1988). Brooks is unduly alarmist. Significant figures like Daniel Burnham and Rexford Tugwell have their counterparts today. But these contemporary planners are different. They do not espouse exaggerated visions nor call brashly for revolutionary changes. American life also is different. Big cities are no longer novel nor is the economy emerging from a major depression. The country now is dealing with seemingly intransigent issues like the underclass and runaway metropolitan growth and adjusting to major industrial restructuring

Who Lives Downtown Today (And Are They Any Different from Downtowners of Thirty Years Ago)?

The increase of housing in downtowns represents an important niche market that has evolved over time. During its development, levels of population, numbers and types of households, rates of homeownership, and downtowner demographic characteristics have changed. This paper documents the changes from 1970-2000 for 46 downtowns in 45 cities representing 19% of the nation’s cities with populations of 100,000 or more. It reports national, regional and individual city trends. It also offers comparisons of these features for the sample cities and their suburbs. While it outlines population changes, it highlights changes in households as the key to understanding downtown living. It records the concentration of downtown households in three places: the Northeast, the Midwest Circle and the California coast, and predicts that if high-growth-rate downtowns, including Seattle, Portland, Atlanta and Dallas, continue to increase at their 1990-2000 levels, they will join the current leaders. It argues that by 2000, five types of downtowns emerged distinguished by their varying degrees of growth, size, density and other characteristics. It concludes with a discussion of three policy concerns that emerge from the analysis revolving around development issues, demographics and market potential and density

The Housing and Slum Clearance Act and its Effectson the Urban Planning Profession

The Housing and Slum Clearance Act of 1949 transformed the planning profession. It had profound effects in six areas: the demand for planners, the exercise of planning techniques, the planners\u27 self-image, the trappings of the profession, professional qualifying standards and the field\u27s ability to adapt to changing circumstances. In the end, the single most important effect of the Act was its confirming in planners the desire to make the environment a better place

The Unsheltered Woman: Definition and Needs

One-third of the nation has a housing problem. Twenty-three millions households are ill-housed. They are a diverse group - the elderly, families with children and single people of all races. Most significantly, they tend to be women. More than 40 percent of the group - or 10 million - are female householders. Females head about 27 percent of all American households today; yet, they are disproportionately represented among those experiencing housing problems. In fact, numerically, they are the largest subgroup of the poorly sheltered population

Designing Woman: A Conversation with New York Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden

In an interview, Amanda Burden, New York City Planning Commissioner, discusses her organization\u27s role in the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan. The biggest issues involved, why she feels so strongly about physical planning and urban design, and what her organization\u27s concerns are in terms of physical planning for the boroughs

Advancing the Art and Science of Planning

The interplay between harmony and conflict focusing on the definition of planning and the financing of promotional activities has characterized the seventy year history of the professional organizations. Despite these currents, foundation support, visionary leadership, and dedicated volunteerism have combined to spread the planning ideal throughout the nation. Nonetheless, the profession remains weakly defined, leaving a challenge for the newly formed American Planning Association