Before renaissance : planning in Pittsburgh, 1889-1943

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bauman, John F, Author.

Contributor:

Muller, Edward K., Contributor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

City planning.

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

Urban renewal.

Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh.

Genre:

History

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (348 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

[Place of publication not identified] University of Pittsburgh Press 2006

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Before Renaissance examines a half-century epoch during which planners, public officials, and civic leaders engaged in a dialogue about the meaning of planning and its application for improving life in Pittsburgh.Planning emerged from the concerns of progressive reformers and businessmen over the social and physical problems of the city. In the Steel City enlightened planners such as Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., and Frederick Bigger pioneered the practical approach to reordering the chaotic urban-industrial landscape. In the face of obstacles that included the embedded tradition of privatism, rugged topography, inherited built environment, and chronic political fragmentation, they established a tradition of modern planning in Pittsburgh.Over the years a melange of other distinguished local and national figures joined in the planning dialogue, among them the 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, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., Harland Bartholomew, Robert Moses, and Pittsburgh's Frederick Bigger. The famed alliance of Richard King Mellon and Mayor David Lawrence, which heralded the Renaissance, owed a great debt to Pittsburgh's prior planning experience. John Bauman and Edward Muller recount the city's long tradition of public/private partnerships as an important factor in the pursuit of orderly and stable urban growth. 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 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:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

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

ISBN:

9780822973058

0822973057

OCLC:

1250434639