Thursday April 1, 1999
Announcements:

Lecture notes:

Land/environment:

• Anti-urban, new urban

Socio-cultural milieu:

• Nature = health (physical, moral, spiritual, emotional)
• Transportation/commuter (trains, cars)

Design Expression:

• Doctors said that city children were very unhealthy. People were stressed because of business. Jobs were considered to be unsatisfying. New diseases were identified. Nothing physically/morally healthful in the city------Therefore, there was a move to the country, closer to nature. Fathers would be close enough to commute to cities for job. SUBURB= "under city"
• Suburbs offered space, wind, green areas, and shade all for health, they were deliberately non-urban.
• The wealthy were always accessible to the country, mid-class were not. Access to transportation now enabled ALL to access the country.
• Railroads and developers helped each other to form suburbs
• Riverside (speaker): The first planned suburb, multi-purpose, functioning community . In 1861 land was purchased outside (far enough from city) around Chicago. In 1868, Olmstead & Vaux were hired to design, it was built around the railroad. In 1871, houses were being built. In 1876, it was acknowledged as the first planned suburb. In 1976, it was known historically. Riverside was known as a city within a park. People were not supposed to see the streets (the were depressed). Benefits of living within a park include the happy/healthy environment for the children since childhood was becoming a better stage of life. Also it combined the luxuries of the city such as plumbing, gas and sidewalks which were normally not accessible in country. Street lamps of gas were used. Every home was supposed to have a view of the park (voids). The big Elm tree in the park was foreign to the area, but brought in to look like it belonged. Had an eclectic architecture, large parkways, curved streets, green space, clustered trees, large lots. It was not planned for the average worker. Doing things outside in the garden was advocated as healthy.
• Ebenezer Howard: wrote policies for communities. Had impact on physical layout. Wrote "Tomorrow" about reform. His idea was a "garden city" to provide advantages for both city and country. Had a conceptual plan of how things ought to be arranged. Central park in the middle surrounded by shopping, then a boulevard, then outside of that would be the industries. The boundaries would be protected by agriculture and these communities would have populations of about 30,000. This is an example of master planning at a larger scale. It would have quasi-public financing also.
• Letchworth, England (1903): was an example of this concentric plan. It started off with a bang, but then slowed down. It was a green belt to contain the population.
• Radburn, New Jersey (1925): first garden city in the U.S. , self-sufficient entity, Clarence Stein was the worker and Henry Wright was the envisionist. They built on an open, cheap land. Open, green spaces for health, wanted to accommodate automobiles and people (to deal with vehicles) with security. Wanted to accommodate 3 neighborhoods, each with shopping, school as the center, and a safe environment for children. Superblock---to separate pedestrians and vehicles, pedestrians could access through the green, backyard spaces. Cul de sac---houses were arranged around circular turn. A big issue is that this plan was never executed and Stein and Wright's vision…not self-contained, construction came to a halt because of the depression.