1. PLAN 4003: Urban Form & Design
Week 3: Public Parks in Urban Design
Anuradha Mukherji
Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning

2. THE INDUSTRIAL CITY
- Production centralized in cities as factories
concentrated in urban areas
- Factory system – needs raw materials,
labor, markets
- Increased mechanization
- Based on intense use of resources – coal,
iron ore, lumber, petroleum
- City of factory, smokestacks, steam engines

3. Ohio Works of the Carnegie Steel Co., Youngstown, Ohio, 1910
These images are attributed to Haines Photo Co. @ 1919 (PD-US-1923) and Seattle Engineering Co. (PD-US-1923)
Seattle Railroad, 1900

4. Pittsburg, Pennslyvania, 1902
This image is attributed to T.M. Fowler & James B. Moyer. (PD-US-1923)

5. Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, 1939
This image is attributed to BASF – The Chemical Company @ 2005 (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

6. Urban Tenements
This image is in the public domain (PD-US-1923)

7. CRISES IN THE INDUSTRIAL CITY
- Increased urban population & rapid
urbanization
- Health impacts on workers exposed to toxic
metals and chemicals
- Poor housing, lack of sanitation, lack of
clean water, poor diet, endemic disease
- Environmental crises – contamination of
water, land and air - massive pollution
discharge – hazardous environment

8. WATER POLLUTION
- Pollution – residential waste (human &
animal); commercial waste (factories &
businesses)
- Factories sited next to rivers or bays - textile,
chemical, iron, steel need water for
production process – used water put back
- Meat plants flush carcasses; processing
and packaging plants dump glues, gums,
dyes, fertilizer, sausage casings, brushes

9. LAND POLLUTION
- Factory – garbage, ashes, scrap metals,
slag disposed on open lots
- Household waste, urine, feces and animal
carcasses dumped on streets
- Horse manure and urine littered streets
- Collection and disposal of solid waste
uncoordinated and privatized
- No public system, only wealthy could afford

10. AIR POLLUTION
- Factory – smoke pollution by product of
coal consumption
- Factory – released chemicals: chlorine,
ammonia, carbon monoxide, methane,
hydrosulfuric acid
- Soot from smokestacks and locomotives
- Smoke equated with progress, growth, jobs
and economic prosperity, science was not
able to link public health to air pollution

11. PLANNING RESPONSE
- County in the city / city in the country
- Urban parks movement
- Garden city movement
- Urban renewal through urban design - Paris

12. This image is attributed to Public Domain (PD-US-1923)
Frederick Law Olmstead, 1895
Portrait by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)
URBAN PARKS MOVEMENT
- Urban parks formalized as public space or
recreational area
- Response to worsening urban conditions
- Links with public health
- Aligned with democratic ideals, open to all
- Parks for the public
- Move away from formalized, rationalized
geometric designs, more organic instead
- Parks as the ‘lungs of the city’, bringing clean
air and sunlight into dirty grimy industrial city
- Parks provided recreational opportunities and
an ‘outlet’ for the stresses of city life

13. Central Park, New York City (Designed by Frederick Law Olmstead & Calvert Vaux, 1858, 843 acre)
This image is attributed to H.Q. Roosevelt @ 2012 (www.rsvlts.com)

14. Central Park, New York City (Designed by Frederick Law Olmstead & Calvert Vaux, 1858, 843 acre)

15. Hester Street, New York City, 1902
This image is attributed to Snapshots of The Past @ 2008 (CC BY 2.0)

16. Central Park, New York City
This image is attributed to Public Domain (PD-US-1923)

17. The Mall, Central Park, New York City, 1902
This image is attributed to Snapshots of The Past @ 2008 (CC BY 2.0) and the public domain (PD-US-1923)
Central Park Map, New York City, 1870

18. This image is attributed to Landscape-Photo.net @ 2011 (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The Mall, Central Park, New York City

19. Literary Walk, Central Park, New York City
This image is attributed to Rex Boggs @ 2011 (CC BY-ND 2.0)

20. Emerald Necklace Park System Plan, Boston, (Olmstead Archives, 1894)
This image is attributed to National Park Service Olmstead Archives (PD-US-1923)

21. Emerald Necklace Park System, Boston
This image is attributed to Department of Conservation and Recreation

22. Riverside, Illinois, Frederick Law Olmstead & Calvert Vaux
This image is attributed to Public Domain (PD-US-1923)

23. Garden City – Self sufficient unit
This image is attributed to Public Domain (PD-US-1923)
IDEA OF THE GARDEN CITY
- Ebenezer Howard – Town-Country Magnet
- Overcrowding an urban ill
- Cities attractive due to higher wages and
social opportunities, recreation
- Hardship in cities – high rents, prices, long
work hours, commuting distance, isolation
and alienation, health hazards
- Rural life beautiful - offers land, fresh air,
water, sunshine
- Rural less compelling – dull and lack of
economic opportunities
- Combining features of urban and country
life to achieve balanced lifestyles and best
of both
- Self contained garden cities of 30,000
people around a larger central city
- Cities with higher wages, regular jobs and
healthier environments

24. Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City (Reorganization of the City)
This image is attributed to Public Domain (PD-US-1923)
GARDEN CITY MOVEMENT
- Elements – zoning and
greenbelts
- Zoning – division of land
for different uses
- Green belts – ‘buffer’
zones between distinct
land uses
- Housing and community
facilities away from
factory and
manufacturing areas

25. Green Machines – Industrial, Technical, Utopian
This image is attributed to Public Domain (PD-US-1923)
- Boulevards - 120 feet from
center to periphery, dividing
city into six parts
- Central garden with civic
institutions around – town
hall, library, theatre,
museum, hospital
- Shopping area separated by
green belt (central park)
followed by housing
- Grand avenue occupied by
schools and churches
- Outer ring comprised of
factories, ware-houses,
dairies, markets, coal yards
- Circled by the railway line
- Agriculture farm holdings
beyond, ready market close
by for the urban farmer
- City managed by citizens

26. Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, Great Britain
This image is attributed to Public Domain (PD-US-1923)

27. Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, Great Britain
This image is attributed to Jonathan Billinger @ 2008 (CC BY-SA 2.0)

28. Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, Great Britain
This image is attributed to Toby Bradbury @ 2005 (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

29. Town Center, Letchworth, Hertfordshire, Great Britain
This image is attributed to littlebitmanky @ 2005 (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

30. Townhall, Letchworth, Hertfordshire, Great Britain
This image is attributed to Robin Hall @ 2006 (CC BY-SA 2.0)

31. Railway Station, Letchworth, Hertfordshire, Great Britain
This image is attributed to Robin Hall @ 2006 (CC BY-SA 2.0)

32. Library & Museum, Letchworth, Hertfordshire, Great Britain
This image is attributed to Robin Hall @ 2005 (CC BY-SA 2.0)

33. Letchworth, Hertfordshire, Great Britain
This image is attributed to Bill Boaden @ 2011 (CC BY-SA 2.0)

34. Meadow Way, Letchworth, Hertfordshire, Great Britain
This image is attributed to Christopher Hilton @ 2011 (CC BY-SA 2.0)