Big Plans: The Allure and Folly of Urban Design

257 Pages·2002·1.3 MB·English

by  Kenneth Kolson

big plans
center books on
contemporary landscape design
Frederick R. Steiner
Consulting Editor
George F. Thompson
Series Founder and Director
Published in cooperation with
the Center for American Places,
Santa Fe, New Mexico, and
Harrisonburg, Virginia
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PPLLAA NN SS
The Allure and Folly of Urban Design
kenneth
kolson
The
Johns Hopkins
University Press
Baltimore
and London
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library of congress
cataloging-in-publication data
Kolson, Kenneth L., –
Big plans : the allure and folly of urban design /
Kenneth Kolson.
p. cm. — (Center books on contemporary
landscape design)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
 ---(alk. paper)
. Cities and towns. .City planning. .Urban
renewal. I. Title. II. Series.
  
.′—dc
-
A catalog record for this book is available from the
British Library.
to Jane, Amanda,and Theodore

Make no little plans; they have no magic to
stir men’s blood and probably themselves
will not be realized. Make big plans; aim
high in hope and work, remembering that a
noble, logical diagram once recorded will
never die, but long after we are gone will be
a living thing, asserting itself with ever-
growing insistency.
—daniel burnham

contents
List of Illustrations xi
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 
 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way
to Trajan’s Forum 
 The “Hidden Cities” of Ancient
North America 
 Cleveland as City Beautiful 
 Utopian Visions on the Crabgrass Frontier 
 Urban Renewal: “The Bugs
Are All Out” 
 The Strange Career of Advocacy Planning 
 Two Cheers for Sprawl 
 When Government Dares to Dream 
 The British Library: From Great Planning
Disaster to Almost All Right 
 With Its “Doors Set Wide to the City” 
 SimCity and Our Town 
Notes 
Select Bibliography 
Illustration Credits 
Index 