DUSP Courses 1998

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 1999

School of Architecture and Planning

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

Units: 3-0-9

Prof. Lawrence Vale, Office: 10-485 (rear of mezzanine), x3-0561, ljvale@mit.edu

Instructor: Fabio Carrera carrera@mit.edu

Time: Mondays and Wednesdays 1-2:30 p.m. in 1-246

This is a class about how cities, suburbs, and metropolitan areas change. It is an introductory subject for undergraduates that examines both the evolving structure of the American metropolis and the ways that it 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 and suburbs 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 recent projects that illustrate the scope and methods of urban design practice and theory.

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 8 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 15

September 13 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 15 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 20 THE DESIGN OF AMERICAN CITIES

Question of the Day: How and why does the form of American cities differ in various parts of the country? What happened to cities as America industrialized?

Anthony E.J. Morris, "Urban USA," in History of Urban Form (London: George Godwin, 1979), pp. 254-289.

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

September 22 URBAN DESIGN AND THE AMERICAN WORKPLACE

Questions of the Day: What were nineteenth century and early twentieth century housing and workplace reformers trying to reform?

Margaret Crawford, "Textile Landscapes: 1790-1850," and "The Company Town in an Era of Industrial Expansion," in Building the Workingman's Paradise: The Design of American Company Towns (New York: Verso, 1995), pp. 11-45.

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

September 25 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 27 DEVELOPMENT CONTROLS AND THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION 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 November 10

October 4 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"

October 6 NEW DIRECTIONS IN LAND USE REGULATION: PERFORMANCE ZONING

Guest Speaker: Philip Herr

Martin Jaffe, "Performance Zoning--A Reassessment," Land Use Law and

Zoning Digest, Vol. 45, no. 3 (March 1993), p. 3-9.

Additional reading to be distributed.

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

October 11 Columbus Day Holiday

PART II: CHANGING CITIES BY

DESIGNING NEW ONES

October 13 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 18 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 20 Exam #1

PART III: CHANGING CITIES BY EXTENDING THEM:

DESIGNING SUBURBS AND REGIONS

October 25 THE ORIGINS AND GROWTH 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?

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. 3-11, 20-44, 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 27 RETHINKING AMERICAN SUBURBS

Questions of the Day: How do "urbanism" and "suburbanism" differ as "ways of life"? What are the social consequences of sprawl?

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)

November 1: DESIGN STANDARDS

Guest Speaker: Eran Ben-Joseph

Michael Southworth and Eran Ben-Joseph, "Street Standards and the Shaping of Suburbia," Journal of the American Planning Association. Vol. 61, No. 1 (Winter 1995).

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

November 3: NEO-TRADITIONALISM AND NEW URBANISM

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.

Congress for the New Urbanism, "Charter of the New Urbanism," 1998 (2 pp.)

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

Final Paper Assigned

(Topic due November 10; paper due December 1)

November 8: REGIONAL PLANNING AND HERITAGE AREAS

Question of the Day: How can urban designers create new economic value for historic places?

Guest Speaker: Dennis Frenchman

Reading: Excerpt from Lane, Frenchman, and Associates, Plan for the Allegheny Ridge (1994).

November 10: REGIONAL PLANNING AND CHANGES IN METROPOLITAN FORM

Question of the Day: What is gained by trying to manage design and development at the level of the region?

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

Topic of Final Paper Due

November 15: ALTERNATIVES TO NEW URBANISM

Question of the Day: Are there good alternatives to New Urbanism?

Inner-city New Urbanism

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

Celebrating Congestion/Critical Urbanism

Rem Koolhaas, "Seminar 1/21/91," in Rem Koolhaas: Conversations With Students (Princeton Architectural Press, 1996), pp. 38-65.

New Public Realms

Sam Bass Warner, Jr. and Lawrence J. Vale, "Beyond Spin: Toward Positive Public Image-Making in Urban Design," in Vale and Warner, eds. Spin City: Imaging and Media in City Design and Development (forthcoming).

Discussion of Exercise 2

November 17: THE END OF SUBURBIA

Question of the Day: Are we losing the distinction between city and suburb?

Guest Speaker: Robert Fishman

Peter Rowe, "Retail Realms," and "Corporate Estates," in Making a Middle Landscape (MIT Press, 1991), pp. 109-181.

PART IV: CHANGING CITIES BY

REDESIGNING THEIR CENTERS

November 22 URBAN RENEWAL AND ITS CRITICS:

Questions of the Day: When does a "neighborhood" become a "slum"? How does one achieve a balance between "renewal" and "preservation"?

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. 22 continued, next page)

(Readings for Nov. 22, 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

November 24 DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AND THE

PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC SPACE

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

Bernard Frieden and Lynne Sagalyn, Downtown, Inc. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989), pp. 1-13, and pp. 215-238.

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.

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

PART V: IMPLEMENTING CHANGE:

NEW RULES, NEW PARTICIPANTS, OLD PROBLEMS

November 29 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.

December 1 URBAN DESIGN FUTURES: E-topia and the City of Bits

Question of the Day: How have advances in telecommunications technology changed the way we use and conceive cities?

Guest Speaker: Dean Bill Mitchell

William J. Mitchell, "March of the Meganets" and "Homes and Neighborhoods," from E-topia : "Urban Life, Jim, But Not As We Know It" (MIT Press, 1999).

Also, 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.

Final Paper Due

December 6: 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, 1984) 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.

December 8: LAST CLASS/ Discussion of Final Papers

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

| Main Page | This Week's Events | About the Department | Academic Programs | Admissions | Financial Assistance | DUSP Classes | People | Publications | DUSP Grads | Activities | Student Awards |

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 1999 School of Architecture and Planning 11.001J/4.250J: Introduction to Urban Design and Development Units: 3-0-9 Prof. Lawrence Vale, Office: 10-485 (rear of mezzanine), x3-0561, ljvale@mit.edu Instructor: Fabio Carrera carrera@mit.edu Time: Mondays and Wednesdays 1-2:30 p.m. in 1-246 This is a class about how cities, suburbs, and metropolitan areas change. It is an introductory subject for undergraduates that examines both the evolving structure of the American metropolis and the ways that it 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 and suburbs 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 recent projects that illustrate the scope and methods of urban design practice and theory. 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 8 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 15 September 13 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 15 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 20 THE DESIGN OF AMERICAN CITIES Question of the Day: How and why does the form of American cities differ in various parts of the country? What happened to cities as America industrialized? Anthony E.J. Morris, "Urban USA," in History of Urban Form (London: George Godwin, 1979), pp. 254-289. Peter Hall, "The City of Dreadful Night," in Cities of Tomorrow (Oxford: Blackwell, 1988), pp. 14-46. September 22 URBAN DESIGN AND THE AMERICAN WORKPLACE Questions of the Day: What were nineteenth century and early twentieth century housing and workplace reformers trying to reform? Margaret Crawford, "Textile Landscapes: 1790-1850," and "The Company Town in an Era of Industrial Expansion," in Building the Workingman's Paradise: The Design of American Company Towns (New York: Verso, 1995), pp. 11-45. In-class Video: Excerpt from "The Workplace"-- on Lowell, Mass. and Pullman, Illinois. September 25 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 27 DEVELOPMENT CONTROLS AND THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION 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 November 10 October 4 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" October 6 NEW DIRECTIONS IN LAND USE REGULATION: PERFORMANCE ZONING Guest Speaker: Philip Herr Martin Jaffe, "Performance Zoning--A Reassessment," Land Use Law and Zoning Digest, Vol. 45, no. 3 (March 1993), p. 3-9. Additional reading to be distributed. NOTE: JOINT SESSION WITH 11.301J STUDENTS IN RM. W31-310. October 11 Columbus Day Holiday PART II: CHANGING CITIES BY DESIGNING NEW ONES October 13 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 18 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 20 Exam #1 PART III: CHANGING CITIES BY EXTENDING THEM: DESIGNING SUBURBS AND REGIONS October 25 THE ORIGINS AND GROWTH 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? 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. 3-11, 20-44, 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 27 RETHINKING AMERICAN SUBURBS Questions of the Day: How do "urbanism" and "suburbanism" differ as "ways of life"? What are the social consequences of sprawl? 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) November 1: DESIGN STANDARDS Guest Speaker: Eran Ben-Joseph Michael Southworth and Eran Ben-Joseph, "Street Standards and the Shaping of Suburbia," Journal of the American Planning Association. Vol. 61, No. 1 (Winter 1995). NOTE: JOINT SESSION WITH 11.301J STUDENTS IN RM. W31-310. November 3: NEO-TRADITIONALISM AND NEW URBANISM 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. Congress for the New Urbanism, "Charter of the New Urbanism," 1998 (2 pp.) In-class Video: Andres Duany "Suburban Sprawl or Livable Neighborhoods" (excerpt #2) Final Paper Assigned (Topic due November 10; paper due December 1) November 8: REGIONAL PLANNING AND HERITAGE AREAS Question of the Day: How can urban designers create new economic value for historic places? Guest Speaker: Dennis Frenchman Reading: Excerpt from Lane, Frenchman, and Associates, Plan for the Allegheny Ridge (1994). November 10: REGIONAL PLANNING AND CHANGES IN METROPOLITAN FORM Question of the Day: What is gained by trying to manage design and development at the level of the region? 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 Topic of Final Paper Due November 15: ALTERNATIVES TO NEW URBANISM Question of the Day: Are there good alternatives to New Urbanism? Inner-city New Urbanism Bradford McKee, "Public Housing's Last Hope," Architecture, August 1997, pp. 94-105. Celebrating Congestion/Critical Urbanism Rem Koolhaas, "Seminar 1/21/91," in Rem Koolhaas: Conversations With Students (Princeton Architectural Press, 1996), pp. 38-65. New Public Realms Sam Bass Warner, Jr. and Lawrence J. Vale, "Beyond Spin: Toward Positive Public Image-Making in Urban Design," in Vale and Warner, eds. Spin City: Imaging and Media in City Design and Development (forthcoming). Discussion of Exercise 2 November 17: THE END OF SUBURBIA Question of the Day: Are we losing the distinction between city and suburb? Guest Speaker: Robert Fishman Peter Rowe, "Retail Realms," and "Corporate Estates," in Making a Middle Landscape (MIT Press, 1991), pp. 109-181. PART IV: CHANGING CITIES BY REDESIGNING THEIR CENTERS November 22 URBAN RENEWAL AND ITS CRITICS: Questions of the Day: When does a "neighborhood" become a "slum"? How does one achieve a balance between "renewal" and "preservation"? 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. 22 continued, next page) (Readings for Nov. 22, 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 November 24 DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AND THE PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC SPACE Question of the Day: Is 'Public Space' Being 'Privatized'? Bernard Frieden and Lynne Sagalyn, Downtown, Inc. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989), pp. 1-13, and pp. 215-238. 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. 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 PART V: IMPLEMENTING CHANGE: NEW RULES, NEW PARTICIPANTS, OLD PROBLEMS November 29 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. December 1 URBAN DESIGN FUTURES: E-topia and the City of Bits Question of the Day: How have advances in telecommunications technology changed the way we use and conceive cities? Guest Speaker: Dean Bill Mitchell William J. Mitchell, "March of the Meganets" and "Homes and Neighborhoods," from E-topia : "Urban Life, Jim, But Not As We Know It" (MIT Press, 1999). Also, 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. Final Paper Due December 6: 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, 1984) 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. December 8: LAST CLASS/ Discussion of Final Papers FINAL EXAM to follow (with review session, to be scheduled)