Before renaissance : planning in Pittsburgh, 1889-1943 / John F. Bauman and Edward K. Muller.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bauman, John F., 1938-

Contributor:

Muller, Edward K.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

City planning--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh--History.

City planning.

Urban renewal--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh--History.

Urban renewal.

History.

Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh.

Physical Description:

xiii, 331 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press, [2006]

Summary:

Before Renaissance examines a half-century epoch during which progressive planners, public officials, and civic leaders engaged in a dialogue about the importance of urban planning for Pittsburgh. Enlightened planners such as Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and Frederick Bigger pioneered the practical approach to reordering the chaotic urban-industrial landscape in the Steel City. In the face of obstacles that included the embedded tradition of privatism, rugged topography, an inherited built environment, and chronic political fragmentation, they established a tradition of modern planning. Over the years a melange of other distinguished local and national figures joined in the planning dialogue, among them park founder Edward Bigelow, political bosses Christopher Magee and William Flinn, mayors George Guthrie and William Magee, industrialists Andrew Carnegie and Howard Heinz, financier Richard King Mellon, and planning luminaries Charles Mulford Robinson, Harland Bartholomew, and Robert Moses. The famed alliance of Richard King Mellon and Mayor David Lawrence, which heralded the Renaissance of the 1950s, owed a great debt to Pittsburgh's prior planning experience.

Before Renaissance provides insights into the major themes, benchmarks, successes, and limitations that marked the formative days of urban planning. It defines Pittsburgh's key role in the vanguard of the national planning movement and reveals the individuals and processes that impacted the physical shape and form of a city for generations to come.

Contents:

Planning and the industrial city

Ring-led development and planning

If ever a city needed the definite plan

The rebirth of planning in post-World War I Pittsburgh

Planning and professionalism in the 1920s

The limitations of planning

The Depression, the New Deal, and planning's survival

Urban crisis and the advent of renaissancemanship

A scaffolding for urban renaissance.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-322) and index.

ISBN:

0822942879

0822959305

OCLC:

69104279

Publisher Number:

9780822959304

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description