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Placing the North American Post-war Pedestrian Mall Within the Legacy of Downtown Urban Renewal Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2024-03-14 Kelly Gregg
This paper investigates how the pedestrian mall concept evolved and was broadly replicated in the post-war period in North America, specifically positioning downtown pedestrian malls as a case study of urban renewal ideas and practices. This research describes how ideas of pedestrianization evolved from a modernist utopian concept, to a more constrained pragmatic approach that was widely implemented
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“Skyscrapers and Their City: Reframing Chicago’s Postwar High-Rises” Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2024-03-11 Joseph M. Watson
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(Un)Settled Monument: Tehran’s Shahyad Square in the Revolutionary Crucible Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2024-01-31 Zohreh Soltani
The Shahyad monument, which has served as a symbol of Tehran—and by extension of modern Iran—since its inauguration in 1971, stands at the center of a huge open space that has been successively appropriated by Pahlavis, revolutionaries, and the Islamic Republic and has been persistently mediated and remediated in its relatively short life. This contested urban monument embodies the complex story of
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The Post-war Revival of Canadian Planning: Assessing the Impact of the Community Planning Association of Canada Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2024-01-22 David L. A. Gordon, Miranda Virginillo
The Community Planning Association of Canada (CPAC) advocated for the re-establishment of planning in post-war Canada. During this period, the federal government set reconstruction objectives, and both Central (now Canada) Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and the CPAC were formed. We believe that 1944–1947 was a critical juncture establishing planned suburban development in Canada as a path-dependent
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“Designs for People Who Do Not Readily Intermingle”: Olmsted Jr.’s Use of Race-Restrictive Covenants, ca. 1900–1930 Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2024-01-06 Annie Schentag
This article illuminates Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.’s use of racially restrictive covenants in his firm’s residential subdivisions. Given his prominence in planning for urban development during the first three decades of the twentieth century, examining Olmsted Jr.’s legacy to the role of planning in perpetuating racial segregation can provide an important missing piece of planning history. This study
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Rise and Fall: Downtown Eugene’s Pedestrian Mall Experience and Retail Core Transformation Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2023-02-03 Subik Kumar Shrestha
Downtown Eugene’s retail core transformed drastically after the institution of the pedestrian mall in 1971. The “Eugene Mall,” which was demolished across four stages between 1985 and 2002, was a p...
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Oran’s Front de Mer Projects 1891–1961: Premises of a Modern Urbanism Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2022-10-18 Allal Feriel Baya, Chérif Nabila
This article reviews the urban revitalization and modernization actions of Oran’s Front de Mer, from the late nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth century. Throughout this period, when Algiers...
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Town Scheming: The Kenbi Aboriginal Land Claim and the Role of Planning in Securing Possession Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2022-10-15 Sue Jackson
This article provides a detailed history of Australia’s longest running Indigenous land claim (1978–2016), made by the Larrakia traditional owners to the coastal hinterland of Darwin, under Austral...
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Making a Self-Reliant Citizen: Technocracy, Rural Redevelopment and the Etawah Pilot Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2022-05-12 Deepa Ramaswamy
The essay traces the trajectory of India’s first rural development program, the Etawah Pilot program from 1948, which became part of the country’s first five-year plans in 1951 with the support of ...
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A Floral Nation: Warren H. Manning, Civic Horticulture, and the Didactic Cityscape Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2022-04-29 Kevan Klosterwill
Warren H. Manning developed a distinctive approach to civic horticulture that recurred throughout his career as a city planner, calling for educational plantings beyond limited educational gardens ...
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The Dismantling of Growth Management in Florida?: The Consistency Mandate, Policy Change, and Institutional Realignment Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2022-04-28 Evangeline R. Linkous
In 1985, Florida established a groundbreaking approach to growth management and intergovernmental relations, which the state’s 2011 Community Planning Act is widely described as ending. This paper ...
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Saving the Shaker Lakes: How an Alliance between Two Wealthy Suburbs and Cleveland’s Black Mayor Stopped the Clark Freeway Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2022-04-22 Virginia P. Dawson
In the 1960s, the suburbs of Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights protested the routing of an Interstate highway through their historic park. Known as the Clark Freeway, I-290 was meant to connect ...
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Down the Vertical Refuse Chutes in Singapore High-rise Living Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2022-04-15 Belinda Yuen, Jane M. Jacobs
In the first three decades of post-independence (1960–1990), Singapore underwent a radical housing transition into high-rise, high-density housing that required technical innovation to manage new s...
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Planned Obsolescence? The Role of the Town Common in the Making of Savannah’s Urban Plan Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2022-03-25 David W. Gobel
The colonial town common of Savannah, Georgia, played a vital role in the city’s history. It enabled public surveyors in the late 18th and early 19th century to expand the celebrated urban plan of streets and public squares that had been initiated by the city’s founder, James Oglethorpe. Its fortuitous role as an expansion zone, however, does not appear to have been intended from start as some have
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Échelon, Quincunx, Quadrangle: The Olmsted Firm and Campus Planning in the Early Decades of Vassar College Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2022-03-25 Yvonne Elet
Frederick Law Olmsted and his sons were America’s foremost campus planners, whose multidisciplinary skill set and collaborative practices enabled them to envision and realize comprehensive plans for campuses, much as they did for their better-known parks and suburban communities. This article contributes a new campus case study to Olmsted firm history. There have long been unsubstantiated reports that
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Corrigendum to Cleaning Streams in Cook County, IL: Forest Preserves, Water Pollution, and Interwar Environmentalism in the Chicago Region Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2022-03-21
Natalie B. Vena, “Cleaning Streams in Cook County, IL: Forest Preserves, Water Pollution, and Interwar Environmentalism in the Chicago Region,” Journal of Planning History. Advance online publication https://doi.org/10.1177/15385132211046219
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The American Road: Highways and American Political Development, 1891–1956 Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2022-03-12 Bruce E. Seely
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Between Anticipative and Iconic: Re-imaging the Emirati Villa and its Spatial Assemblages Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2022-03-02 Mamun Rashid, Dilshad R. Ara
This article chronicles the evolution of the UAE’s (United Arab Emirates) residential architecture from its pre-urban beginnings in the dwellings of semi-nomadic tribes and coastal merchants to the ‘iconic' villas of the present. A temporal framing of traditional planning practices, including the collaborative roles of Sheikhs and transnational actors (in global and citywide planning networks), provides
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Arcadia for Everyone? The Social Context of Garden Suburbs in the U.S Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2022-02-22 Emily Talen
Garden suburbs are a particular type of residential development that flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in the U.S. and globally. Using census data of 283 garden suburbs in the U.S., I investigated the exclusivity of the garden suburb by looking at income, housing value, race, and age. I found that garden suburbs had more Whites, single-family housing, and higher family income in
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From “Citizen Jane” to an Institutional History of Power and Social Change: Problematizing Urban Planning’s Jane Jacobs Historiography Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2022-02-20 Stefan Norgaard
Conventional wisdom frames scholar and activist Jane Jacobs as a skeptical housewife, heterodox/dissident critic, or common-sense neighborhood resident. Yet a comprehensive archival review of Jacobs’ professional engagement with philanthropy and urban-development organizations reveals instead an activist scholar-leader in a larger, well-funded movement that must be understood in its time and place
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Visions, Plans, and Schemes: Reconstructing African American St. Louis after the 1927 Tornado Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2022-02-13 Andrew Hurley, Eliza Murray
This article explores the conflicting claims on urban redevelopment in the aftermath of the 1927 St. Louis tornado. In the Finney Avenue District, a nascent middle-class African American neighborhood, residents saw the post-tornado rebuilding program as an opportunity for civic improvement through the construction of new schools and housing. This grass-roots vision, however, ran up against the objectives
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Cleaning Streams in Cook County, IL: Forest Preserves, Water Pollution, and Interwar Environmentalism in the Chicago Region Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-12-23 Natalie B. Vena
In 1916, the Forest Preserve District of Cook County began acquiring land to create a natural retreat for Chicagoans in that booming metropolitan region. Since district officials acquired many properties along county streams, water pollution soon interfered with their mission of creating an urban wilderness for recreational pleasure. To address the problem, in 1931, county leaders appointed the Clean
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If We Knew Then: A Postscript to the Kerner Report Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-12-21 Rick Loessberg
The Kerner Report, which examined why 1967s rioting occurred, is one of America’s most important works on race and the inner city. Yet, for many, a belief exists that it has been ignored and represents a lost opportunity. Knowing now how the report was received, is there anything that could have been done to produce a more influential report? To answer this question, this article utilizes recent interviews
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From Community Coalitions to City Hall: Shaping Policy in Chicago With Mayor Harold Washington Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-12-21 Robert Giloth
Today’s cities are seeking more social equity—a response in part to police violence, pandemic disparities, and the racial wealth gap. Activists, planners, and local government reformers are looking for bold examples of equity planning—single initiatives and multi-faceted equity plans. The mayoral administration of Harold Washington in Chicago (1983–1987) shows how a grassroots electoral campaign combined
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“For the Contrary View”: Reconsidering the Early Anti-Zoning Decisions” Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-11-20 Francine S. Romero
When the 1926 Euclid v. Ambler decision found municipal zoning valid under the U.S. Constitution, previous state cases opposing the practice were overruled and subsequently almost forgotten. This investigation analyzes those early State Supreme Court cases to determine systematically the basis of these rejections. After constructing a contextual background of the legal arguments that could have been
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Hidden Influences: Exploring the Red Castle Restorations During the Italian Colonization of Libya Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-11-07 Aida M. Ejroushi
This article examines alterations made to the Red Castle in Tripoli during Italy’s colonization of Libya between 1911 and 1943. Italian architects completed two projects which both restored the castle and altered its design through the construction of a tunnel that cuts through the historic site and joined sections of the coastal road (Lungomare Conti Volpi). Using a new visual analysis of the structures
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A strategy for the seventies: Circular A-95 and US regional planning Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-11-07 Carlton Basmajian, Nina David
In 1982, President Ronald Reagan issued Executive Order 12372, revoking a relatively obscure publication issued by the Office of Management and Budget in 1969, Circular No. A-95. One of many policy changes that were part of a broad effort to rebalance how power was shared between the federal government, the states, and municipalities, Reagan’s pen stroke ended what for many planners had been a critical
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Book Review: Design for the Crowd: Patriotism and Protest in Union Square Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-11-08 Gus Wendel
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Shaping the Metropolis: Institutions and Urbanization in the United States and Canada Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-11-08 Jake Wegmann
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The Invention of Rivers: Alexander’s Eye and Ganga’s Descent Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-11-08 Nora L. Schwaller
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Reforesting the City: Profiles in Resilience and Recovery Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-11-07 Geoffrey L. Buckley
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“The Cultural Prehistory of Modern Suburbia, in Fantasy” Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-11-07 Andrew Whittemore
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The Shifting Interface of Public Health and Urban Policy in South Africa Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-11-03 James Duminy, Susan M. Parnell
The paper traces the evolution and periodization of shifting ideas about the critical issues shaping city planning in South Africa, looking both at the relative and variable importance ascribed to health and other factors such as labour, economic reconstruction and housing. While the evolution of the South African city cannot be read without an understanding of the role of public health, changing ideas
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Rethinking and Reshaping Public Space: The Fascinating Story of a Moment and Movement in Urban Design in New York City Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-09-20 Claire Nelischer
The Invention of Public Space: Designing for Inclusion in Lindsay’s New York documents a transformative period of experimentation in public space design in New York City from 1966 through 1973, under the mayoralty of John Lindsay. Combining rich archival research with captivating storytelling, the book sheds light on this time in which emerging ideas about psychology, participation, and politics were
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The Body Politic: Planning History, Design, and Public Health Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-06-21 Stephen J. Ramos
Guest editor Stephen J. Ramos introduces the special issue, themed “The Body Politic: Planning History, Design, and Public Health.” The issue has five contributions from Australia, South Africa, Northern Europe, and the United States. Throughout its history, planning is continually tasked with both modernization and reflexive modernization simultaneously. The duality serves as an instrument of the
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“The Hoist of the Yellow Flag”: Vulnerable Port Cities and Public Health Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-05-17 Dirk Schubert, Cor Wagenaar, Carola Hein
Port cities have long played a key role in the development, discovery, and fight against diseases. They have been laboratories for policies to address public health issues. Diseases reached port cities through maritime exchanges, and the bubonic plague is a key example. Port city residents’ close contact with water further increased the chance for diseases such as cholera. Analyzing three European
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How the City Survey’s Redlining Maps Were Made: A Closer Look at HOLC’s Mortgagee Rehabilitation Division Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-05-07 Todd M. Michney
The infamous “security maps” made in the 1930s by the Home Loan Owners’ Corporation (HOLC), rating supposed mortgage lending risk in urban neighborhoods across the United States, have long been considered the quintessential expression of racist redlining policy. However, a number of misunderstandings and unwarranted speculations about how these maps were made and used have proliferated. Using previously
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The Most Important Thing That Ever Happened: Big, Bad Data and the Doubling of Human Life Expectancy Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-05-06 Stephen Berry
The global doubling of human life expectancy between 1850 and 1950 is arguably the most important thing that ever happened, undergirding massive improvements in human life and lifestyles while also contributing to insectageddons, septic oceans, and collapsing ecosystems. The story of that global doubling is typically told as a series of medical breakthroughs—Jenner and vaccination, Lister and antisepsis
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The “Social Science” of Segregation: Between the “Charitable” Surveys of the Progressive Era and the “Appraisal” Surveys of the New Deal Era Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-04-13 Melissa Rovner
Between the “charitable” surveys of the Progressive Era and the “appraisal” surveys of the New Deal Era, the field of “Social Science” emerged. Although the philanthropic surveys of the Progressive Era influenced housing reform for working-class Persons of Color in urban neighborhoods, while the federal surveys of the New Deal Era influenced real estate disinvestment in those same neighborhoods, each
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Comparing Mid-century Historic Preservation and Urban Renewal through Washington, D.C.’s Alley Dwellings Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-03-23 Rebecca Summer
Some understand mid-century, neighborhood-scale preservation to be a reaction to the destructive impacts of urban renewal. In Washington, D.C., however, neighborhood-scale preservation predated urban renewal. This article investigates the factors that influenced the implementation of both practices in the early 1950s, shedding light on later decisions in other cities, when the strategies were more
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Zoning Damned Whores and God’s Police: Maintaining Prostitution through Land Use and Euphemism in Victoria, Australia Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-03-09 Elizabeth Taylor, Tegan Larin
Building a “respectable nation” from a penal colony meant prostitution created regulatory dilemmas in nineteenth-century Australia. This article traces regulations deployed in the state of Victoria since then to define and control women, buildings, and districts associated with prostitution. It argues that approaches of formal condemnation and tacit approval were adopted and increasingly framed around
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“Systems” as Boundary Objects: Systems Ecology and Urban Planning in the Inter-institutional Policy Simulator (IIPS) Project, 1970–1974 Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-03-01 Leo Chu
This article studies the intersection of systems ecology and urban planning in the Inter-Institutional Policy Simulator (IIPS) project, conducted between 1970 and 1974 in Metro Vancouver, and tries to understand how ecologists influenced the planning of urban systems. I analyze the rise and fall of IIPS as the interaction between “IIPS the Platform” and “IIPS the Product,” or between the network of
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Radical Geography and Advocacy Mapping: The Case of the Detroit Geographical Expedition and Institute (1968–1972) Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-02-09 Gonzalo José López Garrido
In 1968, a group of geographers led by William Bunge founded the Detroit Geographical Expedition and Institute (DGEI), a methodology based on teaching neighborhood residents the skills of a folk geographer to help them improve their built environments. This article focuses on the necessity of revisiting the geographical expedition format today and its influence on participatory urban planning practices
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From Urban Renewal to the BeltLine: Atlanta’s Use of Public Health Narratives to Reshape the City Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-01-28 L. Katie OConnell, Nisha Botchwey
Since the early days of the planning profession, city agencies relied on a public health crisis narrative as a rationale for mass displacement efforts that targeted black communities. Over time, as cities gentrified with white, middle-class residents, the narrative shifted toward the city as a place of health. This article compares Atlanta’s redevelopment narratives from urban renewal to its current
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Eminent Domain and Expropriation Laws: A Century of Urban and Regional Planning in Mexico Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-01-21 Sergio Peña
This article analyzes two aspects of Mexican law that are relevant for planning practice in the country—eminent domain and expropriation. This article shows that the transition in Mexico from a semi-authoritarian to a democratic electoral political system brought not only substantial variability in the application of laws across states but also in planning practice. Democracy has generated a national
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Dream City: Creation, Destruction, and Reinvention in Downtown Detroit Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-03-04 Emily Talen
We have many studies of urban revitalization, but I find them to be heavy on text and weak on visuals. This is unfortunate, given that urban decline and rebirth is often fundamentally a story about changes in the tangible urban context. Thus, I find Conrad Kickert’s Dream City a particularly welcome addition to the urban revitalization library. The book is visually strong and reliant on graphical analysis
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John W. Reps (1921–2020): A Transatlantic Tribute. Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2021-02-08 James Macmillen
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A Review of the Economic Data Emanating from the Development of Central Park and Its Influence on the Construction of Early Urban Parks in the United States Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2020-12-11 John L. Crompton
Financing Central Park by general taxation was controversial and precedent setting. It was justified by rationalizing that increases in property values around the Park would generate sufficient annual revenues to cover all the Park’s capital costs. Accordingly, the Central Park Commissioners provided data as “evidence” to support the success of this vehicle in their annual reports. This article shows
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Bringing History Forward: Learning from Historical Context when Translating Contemporary Health Evidence into Planning Practice Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2020-12-11 Greg Paine, Susan Thompson, Jason Prior, Irena Connon, Jennifer L. Kent
We describe an historical review of planning documents related to a newly developing high-density locality in Sydney, Australia. The review was undertaken to support the translational component of a larger project investigating how best to include knowledge and experience from the health disciplines to ensure a way of living not hitherto commonplace in Australia is also health-supportive. This article
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Book Review: Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2020-12-04 Veronica Brown,Andrew Whittemore
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New York’s Tenements: The Untold Story of Immigrant Builders, Architects, and Financiers Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2020-11-26 Robin B. Williams
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The Long Way from Farm to Table: The Evolution of the United States’ Wholesale Food Business Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2020-10-05 Sophie Kelmenson
The development of wholesale markets fundamentally changed food provisioning in the United States. Because of this system, food today may travel around the world before it is eaten, requiring handling by untold numbers of workers and companies as well as technologies to safely store and transport it. Cities are tied up in the story of global food supply chains, as they are the endpoint for the majority
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Book Review: Shantytown, USA: Forgotten Landscapes of the Working Poor Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2020-10-05 Edward G. Goetz
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Modern Coliseum: Stadiums and American CultureCity of Dreams: Dodger Stadium and the Birth of Modern Los Angeles Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2020-08-13 Michael Galinsky
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Makers Mark: New Works Deepen the Field of Suburban History Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2020-08-06 Meredith Drake Reitan
In the Afterword of Making Suburbia: New Histories of Everyday America, Margaret Crawford identifies three areas of research that expand our understanding of suburban landscapes in the United States. The first is a focus on individual voices. Through oral histories, biographical and ethnographic work, Crawford encourages us to “zoom in for close-ups” of our subjects’ lives (p. 383). She also argues
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Vienna’s Ringstrasse: A Spatial Manifestation of Sociopolitical Values Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2020-07-28 Tanja Winkler
If we agree with Ananya Roy’s claim that planning’s epistemic roots are grounded in liberalism—which is riddled with inherent ethicopolitical tensions—then it might be worth our while to explore some of the spatial consequences of this grounding. The implementation of Vienna’s Ringstrasse serves as an excellent case example for such an exploration. On the one hand, it consists of an array of monumental
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Will Kyiv’s Soviet Industrial Districts Survive? A Study of Transformation, Preservation, and Demolition of Industrial Heritage in Ukraine’s Capital Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2020-07-27 Anastasiya Ponomaryova, Brent D. Ryan
In the 1930s and 1940s, multiple five-year Soviet plans for national industrialization transformed Ukraine’s capital Kyiv (Russian Kiev) into a dramatic industrial metropolis. By 1960, Kyiv was a core industrial city with renovated prerevolutionary factories and massive new industrial enterprises. Ukraine’s 1991 independence threatened industrial complexes with demolition for retail, residential, and
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Regenerating Dixie: Electric Energy and the Modern South Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2020-07-14 Stephen J. Ramos
Regenerating Dixie: Electric Energy and the Modern South is Casey P. Cater’s recent book on how southern energy consolidation was a central process in constructing what he terms the “long New South” over the century spanning the 1880s and the 1970s. The book attempts to reconcile a southern historic exceptionalism with broader national urbanization trends, beginning in the late nineteenth century when
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Workers’ Housing and Houses: Interwar Planning from Dessau to Detroit Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2020-05-18 Michael McCulloch
Facing post–World War I housing shortages and the prospect of social unrest, policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic supported the construction of modern workers’ dwellings. Their efforts produced an extraordinary volume of new units, transforming the working-class experience. Yet, architectural and planning historians have overlooked the comparative potential in this body of work, which includes
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The Efficiency/Community Duality in the Emergence of Planning: Cases in Rural Regional Development Journal of Planning History Pub Date : 2020-04-26 Michael Hibbard, Kathryn Frank
The various approaches to planning manifest the intellectual currents of a society. Dualities such as efficiency/community have been central to shaping contemporary planning. The quest for efficiency, the rational utilization of natural, built, and human capital, along with concern for community, the human needs and rootedness of local populations, has been an ongoing theme. We explore that duality