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Meliorist versus Insurgent Planners and the Problems of New York, 1921–1941

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2009

Michael Simpson
Michael Simpson
Affiliation:
Michael Simpson lectures in History and American Studies at the University College of Swansea. He wishes to acknowledge the assistance given to him in the preparation of this essay by the Awards Scheme of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
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Extract

American planning in the twentieth century has been dominated by a meliorist approach to environmental problems. This dominance has been challenged, more or less ineffectively, by a more radical tradition. The sharpest exchange between the two took place in the interwar years in the city and state of New York, respectively the nation's largest metropolis and then its most populous state. The problems of city and state were the problems of the new industrial-urban nation in microcosm. They attracted the attention of the leading figures in each camp and led to an abortive proposal for a state plan on the part of the radicals or insurgents and, in terms of its implementation, a much more successful Regional Plan of New York and its Environs (1921–30), the work of meliorist planners. This essay explores the problems of the metropolitan region in the interwar years, the alternative strategies put forward, the controversies between the opposing schools of thought and their relative successes and failures.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , August 1982 , pp. 207 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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References

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