DUSP Courses 1998

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11.001J Intro. to Urban Design and Development

Fall 1998

School of Architecture and Planning

11.001J/4.250J: Introduction to Urban Design and Development

Units: 3-0-9

Prof. Lawrence Vale, Office: 10-489, x3-0561, ljvale@mit.edu

Instructor: Tom Campanella, tomcamp@mit.edu

Time: Mondays and Wednesdays 1-2:30 p.m. in 13-3101

This is a class about how cities and metropolitan areas change. It is an introductory subject for undergraduates that examines both the evolving structure of cities and the ways that cities can be designed and developed. We will survey the ideas of a wide range of people who have addressed urban problems and acted to alter cities, suburbs, and regions through urban design and development. We will analyze the values implicit in each of their proposals, stressing the connections between ideas and design. We will look at designs for new towns and examine the ways that existing cities have spread and been redeveloped. Topics range from grand ideas proposed by single individuals to smaller more incremental processes carried out through collaboration by a variety of contending parties. You will see how cities have been changed in the past and how you and others may help change them in the future.

Lectures and discussions will be supplemented by videos, by field study, and by visits from guest speakers who will present cases involving current projects that illustrate the scope and methods of urban design practice.

Work for the class will include extensive reading, two short written exercises, a longer final paper (which may be used to fulfill the MIT Writing Requirement [Phase II]), and two exams (one in-class and the other a Final). Approximately 30% of your grade will be based on the quality of your final paper; 30% on the two shorter exercises, 30% on the exams, and 10% on class participation. All readings are on reserve at Rotch Library. It is essential that all reading be completed in advance of each class.

PART I: CHANGING CITIES:

TRANSLATING VALUES INTO DESIGN

September 9 INTRODUCTION:

Questions of the Day: What is Urban Design? What is Urban Development? How are they connected?

Exercise 1 handed out: due in class on September 16

September 14 WAYS OF SEEING THE CITY:

Questions of the Day: What are the visible signs of change in cities? How can we measure the form of cities? How do the underlying values of the observer influence what is observed?

Grady Clay, "Epitome Districts," from Close-Up: How to Read the American City, pp. 38-65.

Allan Jacobs, "Clues" and "Seeing Change" from Looking At Cities, pp. 30-83 and 99-107.

September 16 THE FORCES THAT MADE BOSTON

Question of the Day: What does the history of Boston's development tell us about the issues facing the city today?

Alex Krieger, "Past Futures: Boston-- Visionary Plans and Practical Visions," Places Vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 56-71.

Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City, pp. 1-25.

Exercise 1 Due in Class.

DISCUSSION OF EXERCISE 1

September 21 THE DESIGN OF AMERICAN CITIES: FROM AGRARIAN TO INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

Questions of the Day: How and why does the form of American cities differ in various parts of the country? What were nineteenth century and early twentieth century housing and workplace reformers trying to reform?

John Reps, "The Spanish Towns of Colonial America," and "New Towns in a New England," in The Making of Urban America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965), pp. 26-55 and 115-146.

Peter Hall, "The City of Dreadful Night," in Cities of Tomorrow (Oxford: Blackwell, 1988), pp. 14-46.

In-class Video: Excerpt from "The Workplace"-- on Lowell, Mass. and Pullman, Illinois.

September 23 DEVELOPMENT CONTROLS AND THE OF PLANNING:

Question of the Day: Can we design cities without designing buildings?

Roger K. Lewis, "The Powers and Pitfalls of Zoning," and "From Zoning to Master Planning... and Back," in Shaping the City (Washington: AIA Press, 1987), pp. 274-281.

Jonathan Barnett, "Zoning, Mapping, and Urban Renewal as Urban Design Techniques," An Introduction to Urban Design (New York: Harper and Row, 1982), pp. 57-75.

Boston Redevelopment Authority, Citizen's Guide to Zoning for Boston, pp. 1-24.

Exercise 2 Assigned: due October 27

September 26 WALKING TOUR OF BOSTON (Optional but highly encouraged)

Meet at ground floor entrance to John Hancock Observatory, inside the John Hancock Tower, Copley Square, at 9:30 a.m.. Walk will end up at Quincy Market for lunch.

September 28 ZONING AND BEYOND: URBAN DESIGN GUIDELINES

William H. Whyte, "The Rise and Fall of Incentive Zoning, in City: Rediscovering the Center (New York: Doubleday, 1988), pp. 229- 55.

In-class Video: "The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces"

September 30 NEW DIRECTIONS IN LAND USE REGULATION

Guest Speaker: Terry Szold

Reading: TBA

PART II: CHANGING CITIES BY

DESIGNING NEW ONES

October 5 THREE URBAN UTOPIAS:

1. Ebenezer Howard's Garden City

2. Le Corbusier's Radiant City

3. Frank Lloyd Wright's Broadacre City

Questions of the Day: What assumptions does each thinker make about how people should live in cities? What beliefs does each hold about the relationship between city design and social change? What aspects of these "utopias" have actually come to pass?

Ebenezer Howard, "Introduction" and "The Town-Country Magnet," from Garden Cities of To-morrow (1902), pp. 41-57.

Frank Lloyd Wright, "Broadacre City," in Truth Against the World: Frank Lloyd Wright Speaks for an Organic Architecture, pp. 351-361.

Le Corbusier, The City of To-morrow and Its Planning, pp. 232-247 and 275-288.

October 7 NEW TOWNS IN THE UNITED STATES & ABROAD

Question of the Day: What motivates planners to design new towns?

Clarence Stein, "Radburn, New Jersey," from Toward New Towns for America (Cambridge, MIT Press, 1989 [1950 original]).

Lawrence J. Vale, "Designed Capitals After World War II: Chandigarh and Brasília," from Architecture, Power, and National Identity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), pp. 105-27.

October 12 Columbus Day Holiday

October 13 Exam #1 (Monday classes held on Tuesday)

PART III: CHANGING CITIES BY EXTENDING THEM:

DESIGNING SUBURBS AND REGIONS

October 14 THE ORIGINS OF SUBURBS

Questions of the Day: Why do we have suburbs? How and why do the designs of new suburbs differ from the designs of older ones? How do "urbanism" and "suburbanism" differ as "ways of life"?

Kenneth Jackson, "Introduction," "The Transportation Revolution and the Erosion of the Walking City," and "Affordable Homes for the Common Man," from Crabgrass Frontier : The Suburbanization of the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 3-44 and 116-137.

Robert Fishman, "The Post-War American Suburb: A New Form, A New City," in Daniel Schaffer, ed., Two Centuries of American Planning (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U. Press, 1988), pp. 265-278.

October 19 RETHINKING AMERICAN SUBURBS

Michael Southworth and Peter M. Owens, "The Evolving Metropolis: Studies of Community, Neighborhood and Street Form at the Urban Edge," Journal of the American Planning Association, Summer 1993, pp. 271-87.

Herbert Gans, "Urbanism and Suburbanism as Ways of Life: A Re-evaluation of Definitions," in People and Plans: Essays on Urban Problems and Solutions (New York: Basic Books, 1968), pp. 34-52.

In-class Video: Andres Duany "Suburban Sprawl or Livable Neighborhoods" (excerpt #1)

October 21 NEO-TRADITIONALISM IN URBAN DESIGN

Question of the Day: What is the appeal of small town life, and can this be designed?

Ivonne Audirac and Anne H. Shermyen, "An Evaluation of Neotraditional Design's Social Prescription: Postmodern Placebo or Remedy for Suburban Malaise?" Journal of Planning Education and Research, Spring 1994, pp. 161-173.

Leon Krier, "Town and Country," "Critique of Zoning," "Critique of Industrialisation," "The Idea of Reconstruction," and "Urban Components," from Houses, Palaces, Cities, pp. 30-42.

Philip Langdon, "The Rediscovery of the Town," in A Better Place to Live: Reshaping the American Suburb (New York: HarperPerennial, 1994), pp. 107-47.

In-class Video: Andres Duany "Suburban Sprawl or Livable Neighborhoods" (excerpt #2)

October 26: REGIONAL PLANNING AND CHANGES IN METROPOLITAN FORM

Questions of the Day: What is gained by trying to manage design and development at the level of the region? Are we losing the distinction between city and suburb?

Kermit C. Parsons, "Collaborative Genius: The Regional Planning Association of America," Journal of the American Planning Association 60, 4 (Autumn 1994), pp. 462-482.

Carl Abbott, "The Portland Region: Where City and Suburbs Talk to Each Other-- and Often Agree," Housing Policy Debate 8, 1 (1997), pp. 11-51.

Melvin Webber, "The Urban Place and the Nonplace Urban Realm" (excerpt), in Webber et al., Explorations into Urban Structure (Philadelphia: U. of Pennsylvania Press, 1964).

Exercise 2 Due

Final Paper Assigned

(Topic due November 16; paper due December 7)

October 28: REDESIGNING SUBURBIA

Guest Speaker: Eran Ben-Joseph

Reading: TBA

NOTE: JOINT SESSION WITH 11.301J STUDENTS IN RM. W31-310.

PART IV: CHANGING CITIES BY

REDESIGNING THEIR CENTERS

November 2 URBAN RENEWAL AND ITS CRITICS:

Question of the Day: When does a "neighborhood" become a "slum"?

Herbert Gans, "The West End: An Urban Village," in The Urban Villagers (New York: Free Press, 1962), pp. 3-16.

Jane Jacobs, Death and Life of Great American Cities (New York: Vintage, 1961), pp. 3-25.

Lewis Mumford, "Home Remedies for Urban Cancer," in The Urban Prospect (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1968), pp. 182-207.

Readings for Nov. 2 continued, next page.

Readings for Nov. 2, continued:

Herbert Gans, "Urban Vitality and the Fallacy of Physical Determinism" (Review of Jane Jacobs' book), from People and Plans, pp. 25-33.

In-class Videos: Home Movies from Boston's West End and West End Reunion

Discussion of Exercise 2

November 4 DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT

Guest Speaker: Dennis Frenchman

Bernard Frieden and Lynne Sagalyn, Downtown, Inc. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989), pp. 1-13.

Witold Rybczynski, "The New Downtowns," The Atlantic Monthly, May 1993, pp. 98-106.

Kent A. Robertson, "Downtown Redevelopment Strategies in the United States: An End-of-the-Century Assessment," Journal of the American Planning Association 61,4 (Autumn, 1995), pp. 429-437.

November 9: PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC SPACE

Question of the Day: Is 'Public Space' Being 'Privatized'?

Bernard Frieden and Lynne Sagalyn, "Privatizing the City," from Downtown, Inc. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989), pp. 215-238.

Webb Nichols, "Nightmare on City Hall Plaza," Boston Globe, August 17, 1997, p. D3.

Mike Davis, "Fortress Los Angeles: The Militarization of Urban Space," in Michael Sorkin, ed., Variations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space (NY: Noonday, 1992).

In-class Video: Gated Communities

November 11: Veterans Day Holiday

November 16: COMBATING PLACELESSNESS

Questions of the Day: Are places becoming more alike? What can urban designers do to help nurture identity?

James Howard Kunstler, "Home From Nowhere," The Atlantic Monthly, September 1996, pp. 43-66.

In-class Video: Prince Charles' "A Vision of Britain" (excerpt)

Topic of Final Paper Due

PART V: IMPLEMENTING CHANGE:

NEW RULES, NEW PARTICIPANTS, OLD PROBLEMS

November 18 THE RISE OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS AND REGULATION

Question of the Day: How can cities best benefit from the natural environment without further harming it?

Anne Whiston Spirn, "The City as an Infernal Machine" and "Designing the Urban Ecosystem," from The Granite Garden: Urban Nature and Human Design (New York: Basic Books, ) pp. 229-262 .

Michael Hough, "Introduction" and "Urban Ecology, A Basis For Design," from City Form and Natural Process: Towards a New Urban Vernacular (London: Croom Helm), pp. 1-27.

Jonathan Barnett, "Environmental Design and Environmental Conservation," in An Introduction to Urban Design (New York: Harper and Row, 1982), pp. 15-26.

November 23 THE RISE OF COMMUNITY ACTIVISM

Guest Speaker: Ken Kruckemeyer

Questions of the Day: How has community participation changed urban design and development? Can urban development be a force for social equity?

Neal R. Peirce and Robert Guskind, "Boston's Southwest Corridor: People Power Makes History," in Breakthroughs: Recreating the American City (New Brunswick, N.J.: Center for Urban Policy Research, 1993), pp. 83-114.

November 25 IN-CLASS FIELD-TRIP to the

BOSTON REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

Michael Rezendes, "Redeveloping Redevelopment," Boston Globe, April 17, 1994, pp. A21-A22.

November 30 URBAN DESIGN FUTURES: The City in Cyberspace

Reading: Thomas J. Campanella and Anne Beamish, "The City in Cyberspace"

December 2 URBAN DESIGN FUTURES: City of Bits

Guest Speaker: Dean Bill Mitchell

Reading: Explore the on-line version of William J. Mitchell,

City of Bits , especially chapter 5, "Soft Cities":

http://www-mitpress.mit.edu/City_of_Bits/Soft_Cities/index.html

NOTE: JOINT SESSION WITH 11.301J STUDENTS IN RM. W31-310.

December 7: REDEVELOPING REDEVELOPMENT:

REVITALIZING PUBLIC HOUSING

Questions of the Day: Who benefits from redevelopment? Do the concerns of urban designers and developers differ from the concerns of residents?

Oscar Newman, Defensible Space (New York: Macmillan, 1972), pp. 1-21 and 102-117.

Lawrence J. Vale, "Design Matters: Reflections on the Chicago Tribune's 'Architecture Competition for Public Housing,'" Inland Architect, January/February 1994, pp. 34-37.

Bradford McKee, "Public Housing's Last Hope," Architecture, August 1997, pp. 94-105.

Final Paper Due

December 9: LAST CLASS/ Discussion of Final Papers

FINAL EXAM to follow (with review session, to be scheduled)

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This syllabus may have been updated. To ensure that you're looking at the most recent version, please hit "Reload."
11.001J Intro. to Urban Design and Development
Fall 1998 School of Architecture and Planning 11.001J/4.250J: Introduction to Urban Design and Development Units: 3-0-9 Prof. Lawrence Vale, Office: 10-489, x3-0561, ljvale@mit.edu Instructor: Tom Campanella, tomcamp@mit.edu Time: Mondays and Wednesdays 1-2:30 p.m. in 13-3101 This is a class about how cities and metropolitan areas change. It is an introductory subject for undergraduates that examines both the evolving structure of cities and the ways that cities can be designed and developed. We will survey the ideas of a wide range of people who have addressed urban problems and acted to alter cities, suburbs, and regions through urban design and development. We will analyze the values implicit in each of their proposals, stressing the connections between ideas and design. We will look at designs for new towns and examine the ways that existing cities have spread and been redeveloped. Topics range from grand ideas proposed by single individuals to smaller more incremental processes carried out through collaboration by a variety of contending parties. You will see how cities have been changed in the past and how you and others may help change them in the future. Lectures and discussions will be supplemented by videos, by field study, and by visits from guest speakers who will present cases involving current projects that illustrate the scope and methods of urban design practice. Work for the class will include extensive reading, two short written exercises, a longer final paper (which may be used to fulfill the MIT Writing Requirement [Phase II]), and two exams (one in-class and the other a Final). Approximately 30% of your grade will be based on the quality of your final paper; 30% on the two shorter exercises, 30% on the exams, and 10% on class participation. All readings are on reserve at Rotch Library. It is essential that all reading be completed in advance of each class. PART I: CHANGING CITIES: TRANSLATING VALUES INTO DESIGN September 9 INTRODUCTION: Questions of the Day: What is Urban Design? What is Urban Development? How are they connected? Exercise 1 handed out: due in class on September 16 September 14 WAYS OF SEEING THE CITY: Questions of the Day: What are the visible signs of change in cities? How can we measure the form of cities? How do the underlying values of the observer influence what is observed? Grady Clay, "Epitome Districts," from Close-Up: How to Read the American City, pp. 38-65. Allan Jacobs, "Clues" and "Seeing Change" from Looking At Cities, pp. 30-83 and 99-107. September 16 THE FORCES THAT MADE BOSTON Question of the Day: What does the history of Boston's development tell us about the issues facing the city today? Alex Krieger, "Past Futures: Boston-- Visionary Plans and Practical Visions," Places Vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 56-71. Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City, pp. 1-25. Exercise 1 Due in Class. DISCUSSION OF EXERCISE 1 September 21 THE DESIGN OF AMERICAN CITIES: FROM AGRARIAN TO INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY Questions of the Day: How and why does the form of American cities differ in various parts of the country? What were nineteenth century and early twentieth century housing and workplace reformers trying to reform? John Reps, "The Spanish Towns of Colonial America," and "New Towns in a New England," in The Making of Urban America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965), pp. 26-55 and 115-146. Peter Hall, "The City of Dreadful Night," in Cities of Tomorrow (Oxford: Blackwell, 1988), pp. 14-46. In-class Video: Excerpt from "The Workplace"-- on Lowell, Mass. and Pullman, Illinois. September 23 DEVELOPMENT CONTROLS AND THE OF PLANNING: Question of the Day: Can we design cities without designing buildings? Roger K. Lewis, "The Powers and Pitfalls of Zoning," and "From Zoning to Master Planning... and Back," in Shaping the City (Washington: AIA Press, 1987), pp. 274-281. Jonathan Barnett, "Zoning, Mapping, and Urban Renewal as Urban Design Techniques," An Introduction to Urban Design (New York: Harper and Row, 1982), pp. 57-75. Boston Redevelopment Authority, Citizen's Guide to Zoning for Boston, pp. 1-24. Exercise 2 Assigned: due October 27 September 26 WALKING TOUR OF BOSTON (Optional but highly encouraged) Meet at ground floor entrance to John Hancock Observatory, inside the John Hancock Tower, Copley Square, at 9:30 a.m.. Walk will end up at Quincy Market for lunch. September 28 ZONING AND BEYOND: URBAN DESIGN GUIDELINES William H. Whyte, "The Rise and Fall of Incentive Zoning, in City: Rediscovering the Center (New York: Doubleday, 1988), pp. 229- 55. In-class Video: "The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces" September 30 NEW DIRECTIONS IN LAND USE REGULATION Guest Speaker: Terry Szold Reading: TBA PART II: CHANGING CITIES BY DESIGNING NEW ONES October 5 THREE URBAN UTOPIAS: 1. Ebenezer Howard's Garden City 2. Le Corbusier's Radiant City 3. Frank Lloyd Wright's Broadacre City Questions of the Day: What assumptions does each thinker make about how people should live in cities? What beliefs does each hold about the relationship between city design and social change? What aspects of these "utopias" have actually come to pass? Ebenezer Howard, "Introduction" and "The Town-Country Magnet," from Garden Cities of To-morrow (1902), pp. 41-57. Frank Lloyd Wright, "Broadacre City," in Truth Against the World: Frank Lloyd Wright Speaks for an Organic Architecture, pp. 351-361. Le Corbusier, The City of To-morrow and Its Planning, pp. 232-247 and 275-288. October 7 NEW TOWNS IN THE UNITED STATES & ABROAD Question of the Day: What motivates planners to design new towns? Clarence Stein, "Radburn, New Jersey," from Toward New Towns for America (Cambridge, MIT Press, 1989 [1950 original]). Lawrence J. Vale, "Designed Capitals After World War II: Chandigarh and Brasília," from Architecture, Power, and National Identity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), pp. 105-27. October 12 Columbus Day Holiday October 13 Exam #1 (Monday classes held on Tuesday) PART III: CHANGING CITIES BY EXTENDING THEM: DESIGNING SUBURBS AND REGIONS October 14 THE ORIGINS OF SUBURBS Questions of the Day: Why do we have suburbs? How and why do the designs of new suburbs differ from the designs of older ones? How do "urbanism" and "suburbanism" differ as "ways of life"? Kenneth Jackson, "Introduction," "The Transportation Revolution and the Erosion of the Walking City," and "Affordable Homes for the Common Man," from Crabgrass Frontier : The Suburbanization of the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 3-44 and 116-137. Robert Fishman, "The Post-War American Suburb: A New Form, A New City," in Daniel Schaffer, ed., Two Centuries of American Planning (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U. Press, 1988), pp. 265-278. October 19 RETHINKING AMERICAN SUBURBS Michael Southworth and Peter M. Owens, "The Evolving Metropolis: Studies of Community, Neighborhood and Street Form at the Urban Edge," Journal of the American Planning Association, Summer 1993, pp. 271-87. Herbert Gans, "Urbanism and Suburbanism as Ways of Life: A Re-evaluation of Definitions," in People and Plans: Essays on Urban Problems and Solutions (New York: Basic Books, 1968), pp. 34-52. In-class Video: Andres Duany "Suburban Sprawl or Livable Neighborhoods" (excerpt #1) October 21 NEO-TRADITIONALISM IN URBAN DESIGN Question of the Day: What is the appeal of small town life, and can this be designed? Ivonne Audirac and Anne H. Shermyen, "An Evaluation of Neotraditional Design's Social Prescription: Postmodern Placebo or Remedy for Suburban Malaise?" Journal of Planning Education and Research, Spring 1994, pp. 161-173. Leon Krier, "Town and Country," "Critique of Zoning," "Critique of Industrialisation," "The Idea of Reconstruction," and "Urban Components," from Houses, Palaces, Cities, pp. 30-42. Philip Langdon, "The Rediscovery of the Town," in A Better Place to Live: Reshaping the American Suburb (New York: HarperPerennial, 1994), pp. 107-47. In-class Video: Andres Duany "Suburban Sprawl or Livable Neighborhoods" (excerpt #2) October 26: REGIONAL PLANNING AND CHANGES IN METROPOLITAN FORM Questions of the Day: What is gained by trying to manage design and development at the level of the region? Are we losing the distinction between city and suburb? Kermit C. Parsons, "Collaborative Genius: The Regional Planning Association of America," Journal of the American Planning Association 60, 4 (Autumn 1994), pp. 462-482. Carl Abbott, "The Portland Region: Where City and Suburbs Talk to Each Other-- and Often Agree," Housing Policy Debate 8, 1 (1997), pp. 11-51. Melvin Webber, "The Urban Place and the Nonplace Urban Realm" (excerpt), in Webber et al., Explorations into Urban Structure (Philadelphia: U. of Pennsylvania Press, 1964). Exercise 2 Due Final Paper Assigned (Topic due November 16; paper due December 7) October 28: REDESIGNING SUBURBIA Guest Speaker: Eran Ben-Joseph Reading: TBA NOTE: JOINT SESSION WITH 11.301J STUDENTS IN RM. W31-310. PART IV: CHANGING CITIES BY REDESIGNING THEIR CENTERS November 2 URBAN RENEWAL AND ITS CRITICS: Question of the Day: When does a "neighborhood" become a "slum"? Herbert Gans, "The West End: An Urban Village," in The Urban Villagers (New York: Free Press, 1962), pp. 3-16. Jane Jacobs, Death and Life of Great American Cities (New York: Vintage, 1961), pp. 3-25. Lewis Mumford, "Home Remedies for Urban Cancer," in The Urban Prospect (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1968), pp. 182-207. Readings for Nov. 2 continued, next page. Readings for Nov. 2, continued: Herbert Gans, "Urban Vitality and the Fallacy of Physical Determinism" (Review of Jane Jacobs' book), from People and Plans, pp. 25-33. In-class Videos: Home Movies from Boston's West End and West End Reunion Discussion of Exercise 2 November 4 DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT Guest Speaker: Dennis Frenchman Bernard Frieden and Lynne Sagalyn, Downtown, Inc. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989), pp. 1-13. Witold Rybczynski, "The New Downtowns," The Atlantic Monthly, May 1993, pp. 98-106. Kent A. Robertson, "Downtown Redevelopment Strategies in the United States: An End-of-the-Century Assessment," Journal of the American Planning Association 61,4 (Autumn, 1995), pp. 429-437. November 9: PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC SPACE Question of the Day: Is 'Public Space' Being 'Privatized'? Bernard Frieden and Lynne Sagalyn, "Privatizing the City," from Downtown, Inc. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989), pp. 215-238. Webb Nichols, "Nightmare on City Hall Plaza," Boston Globe, August 17, 1997, p. D3. Mike Davis, "Fortress Los Angeles: The Militarization of Urban Space," in Michael Sorkin, ed., Variations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space (NY: Noonday, 1992). In-class Video: Gated Communities November 11: Veterans Day Holiday November 16: COMBATING PLACELESSNESS Questions of the Day: Are places becoming more alike? What can urban designers do to help nurture identity? James Howard Kunstler, "Home From Nowhere," The Atlantic Monthly, September 1996, pp. 43-66. In-class Video: Prince Charles' "A Vision of Britain" (excerpt) Topic of Final Paper Due PART V: IMPLEMENTING CHANGE: NEW RULES, NEW PARTICIPANTS, OLD PROBLEMS November 18 THE RISE OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS AND REGULATION Question of the Day: How can cities best benefit from the natural environment without further harming it? Anne Whiston Spirn, "The City as an Infernal Machine" and "Designing the Urban Ecosystem," from The Granite Garden: Urban Nature and Human Design (New York: Basic Books, ) pp. 229-262 . Michael Hough, "Introduction" and "Urban Ecology, A Basis For Design," from City Form and Natural Process: Towards a New Urban Vernacular (London: Croom Helm), pp. 1-27. Jonathan Barnett, "Environmental Design and Environmental Conservation," in An Introduction to Urban Design (New York: Harper and Row, 1982), pp. 15-26. November 23 THE RISE OF COMMUNITY ACTIVISM Guest Speaker: Ken Kruckemeyer Questions of the Day: How has community participation changed urban design and development? Can urban development be a force for social equity? Neal R. Peirce and Robert Guskind, "Boston's Southwest Corridor: People Power Makes History," in Breakthroughs: Recreating the American City (New Brunswick, N.J.: Center for Urban Policy Research, 1993), pp. 83-114. November 25 IN-CLASS FIELD-TRIP to the BOSTON REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY Michael Rezendes, "Redeveloping Redevelopment," Boston Globe, April 17, 1994, pp. A21-A22. November 30 URBAN DESIGN FUTURES: The City in Cyberspace Reading: Thomas J. Campanella and Anne Beamish, "The City in Cyberspace" December 2 URBAN DESIGN FUTURES: City of Bits Guest Speaker: Dean Bill Mitchell Reading: Explore the on-line version of William J. Mitchell, City of Bits , especially chapter 5, "Soft Cities": http://www-mitpress.mit.edu/City_of_Bits/Soft_Cities/index.html NOTE: JOINT SESSION WITH 11.301J STUDENTS IN RM. W31-310. December 7: REDEVELOPING REDEVELOPMENT: REVITALIZING PUBLIC HOUSING Questions of the Day: Who benefits from redevelopment? Do the concerns of urban designers and developers differ from the concerns of residents? Oscar Newman, Defensible Space (New York: Macmillan, 1972), pp. 1-21 and 102-117. Lawrence J. Vale, "Design Matters: Reflections on the Chicago Tribune's 'Architecture Competition for Public Housing,'" Inland Architect, January/February 1994, pp. 34-37. Bradford McKee, "Public Housing's Last Hope," Architecture, August 1997, pp. 94-105. Final Paper Due December 9: LAST CLASS/ Discussion of Final Papers FINAL EXAM to follow (with review session, to be scheduled)