By this point in the semester we have studies a broad array of cities in a varsity of epochs and the effects of military, planning, social, industrial, and cultural effects that have sculpted and shaped the neighborhoods, districts and ever evolving boundaries of those cities. This past week culminated in your own intensive search, observation and intensive critique and analysis of a city/film combination.
For the remainder of our time we will explore aspects of urbanism as explored and found in your own subject city.
In the process and conversation - we can observe converging and diverging issues and effects upon the urban environs. As we look around we can begin to see connections in the history of cities that have been formed (or reformed) in similar ways.
Boston grew up from earliest colonial traditions of town planning, the same central market, bay, and trade economy - the same economic, geographical and social factors that built cities like London - so it comes as no surprise that the cities are tangles of roads fanning out from the central initial settlement in ever growing rings, adjusted and impacted by thier waterways and associated industry.
(See images of London and Boston)
Photo courtesy of http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/sbookmap.asp
Colonial map of Boston courtesy of http://sites.fas.harvard.edu/bin/imagebase/carouselstate=cycle&info=on&startno=4&sortfield=F02&name=hsb41&search=map%7CF01
And an additional map showing a more modern Boston with an overlay showing the original geography demonstrating the extent of full and land reclaimed from the bay.
Similarly, when looking at cities such as London it is easy to see how William Penn inspired by history turned to the efficacy of the Roman grid, and adapted it into his initial plan for Philadephia.
Further still, when Baron Hausman was contracted to give the medieval tangle of Parisian streets more freedom of movement he looked to the grand streets of Rome that the Popes had cut through the imperial and Medieval Roman sprawl to connect important social spaces. Hausman's plans for Paris took the drastic step of cutting brand new streets in a diamond pattern across the town linking up the various landmark spaces and places. In the evolution of France these great Alleès line with lights and trees in turn inspired other cuts through cities - Such as Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway, or more symbolically, the ideals of revolutionary France - libertè, egalitè, fraternitè (Liberty, equality, brotherhood) were embodied in thier grand public streets - a style directly embodied and consciously adopted in the planning of Washington, DC.
Views of Paris before and after the urban reworkings
Photo courtesy of http://www.theparisblog.com/before-and-after-haussmann/
(See plans of Rome, Paris, Philadelphia, and Washington DC)
Map showing Pope Sixtua the Fifth's newly cut boulevards through Rome created to ease traffic and more easily move pilgrims between the holy sites of the city. Image courtesy of https://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/larch-la544-study-guide-2011-12-mcgirr/deck/9733220
Map of Paris showing the Haissmann overlay on the medieval city plan, image courtesy of http://www2.gwu.edu/~art/Temporary_SL/177/ah177_htmls/177_9lect_1.htm
Detail of one of the large alleè to be cut in Paris courtesy of http://www.empresas.mundo-r.com/historiadelartepazromero/web/Historia%20del%20arte.htm/14.hacialaarquitecturamoderna/14.2.lasgrndestransformacionesurbanas.htm
Map of Washington, D.C. Courtesy of https://www.dcvote.org/inside-dc/historical-and-antique-maps-washington-dc
This week your job is to share a map of your city and analyze explain and put forward why you think that district, era, industry, or other force acting upon the city has resulted in the form it developed.
Focus your critique on a specific area or time, discussing the entire form of Philadelphia could take an entire semester!
However it is manageable to discuss, for example, the genesis of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, both in terms of its linkage to urban movements in cities elsewhere, and local design ideas. Consoder the grid of Philadelphia, and the desire for linkage between the central newly built grand City Hall and the great expanse of the continued forming Fairmount Park was identified by the Philadelphia urban elite as ripe for connection, and development. Industrialists of the city, newly enriched by their factories, railroads, and industry of the Philadelphia 'workshop of the world' saught to expand and display thier social sophistication by displaying thier cultural institutions along a grand promenade. A new axis was cut from the City Hall to the Fairmount Waterworks. Atop the previous reservoir on Fair amount a small hill adjacent to the water works, an elaborate edific was design to house art collections gathered by wealthy Philadelphia patrons. In effect the museum- looking even more large and impressive due to its high site, became the grand entrance to the park as citizens where'd past to enjoy the river banks on the weekends. Additionally, other venerable Philadelphia institutions were relocated, founded, or found new homes along the parkway's length - such as The Philadlephia Free Library, Franklin Institute, Rodin Museum, Academy of Science, international House, Cherry Street Friends School, a Philadelphia Courthouse, and the Cathedral of Sts Peter and Paul.
The famous watercolor painting by architect and landscape architect Paul Crete clearly shows the desired connection between City Hall, the Art-Museum-as-gatehouse and Fairmount Park....setting the stage several decades in advance for the famous Rocky run up the stairs and the papal stage....
Photo courtesy of http://www.phillyhistory.org/blog/index.php/2014/01/looking-back-on-the-vision-for-the-ben-franklin-parkway/
This the creation, shape and effects of the Parkway in Philadelphia is founded in the park movement of the 1920s known as The City Beautiful Movement, Baron Hausman's Plan of Paris, and Papal Rome's boulevards...a fitting linkage which made the Parkway a prime location for the Papal visit to Philadelphia this past year!
Photo courtesy of http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pope/20150928_Pope_Francis_says_Mass_for_huge_crowd_in_sweeping_finale_to.html
1) What urban forces have acted to shape a district, area or neighborhood of the city you have studied?
Additional questions:
2) What maps, resources, media or imagery can you utilize to support this point?
3) What other cities share a common form with the aspects you are discussing?
3) Was this form visible in the film of your city? How do? Or why not? How do you think it effected or would have effected the film?
Posts due by next Wednesday April 27th
Final papers were due per the syllabus this week. However you will continue to utilize you paper and these assignments (including the previous homework assignment) to continue our study of urban form and effects. These assignments will be appended onto your paper as addendums. This gives a chance for students to more incisively study, critique illustrate and potentially improve thier work incrementally. Papers will be recollected for the class final handed in as digital PDFs only.
8 comments:
Woojae H.
The city that I have studied for my final term paper was Boston. The main characteristic of the city that I focused to write about was the large population of European immigrants, more specifically Irish immigrants. Early Boston has started around the Shawmut Peninsula as early European settlers decided to live there. In nineteenth century, more immigrants started to migrate over from Europe. There was a reason for Irish people to migrate. There was a situation in their country which was called the Irish Potato Famine. It was caused by a disease that affect potatoes. The roots and leaves will be affected by the disease that most of the crops had to be disposed. Irish people were more reliant on potatoes because they were cheaper. The hardships they faced encouraged them to migrate over to America. As a result, there were lots of Irish immigrants back in time, and the place they all gathered was Boston. Back in Europe, Irish people were oppressed by British and were not even considered as equal. They did not have any political power or social standings. When they came over to America, they were able to speak up politically and were able to form their own communities to have social power. Even though they were somewhat socially disadvantaged due to the fact that they were immigrants, the circumstances were not too harsh for Irish people. Irish people were already used to being under difficult circumstances because of many difficult situations they had to go through back in their country.
To go back to the topic, Irish immigrants were the main group that contributed to the formation of the city in the early times. Even to this day, there are many Irish Americans around Boston.
As for the maps or resources that I used to support my point, I have found a map showing the concentration of each ethnic groups of immigrants around America. The map shows the concentration of Irish population in Boston.
I suppose that New York City shares the same point. I have read that, like Boston, the early formation of New York was similar to Boston. The early formation of the city took place with a lot of immigrants coming from Europe.
This last half of semester I have studied the film 8-mile. In this depiction of the rise of Marshal Matters III aka Eminem we are dropped into Detroit a few decades after the automobile industry collapsed. In this representation we are reminded of the hardships faced after the economic prosperity of a city collapse. At this time the area of Detroit was a dog eats dog world as many struggled to find economic stability in doing so many faced hardships of economics, social barriers, and family issues which either broke them or brought them to succeed. The decline in the industrial period of Chicago caused a great devastation to the city as families entire budgets were cut with layoffs. The city of Philadelphia demonstrates many of these similar characteristics but in terms of declining industrialization, Philadelphia was able to properly handle the change in times as they focused towards commercializing the city environment. In this understanding of the quality of life in Detroit I have elected to compare this to the steel industry in Steelton, Pennsylvania. In the nineteen seventies when my dad was growing up Steelton was a diverse and popular suburb of Harrisburg. By the end of the eighties however the population was no longer happy and satisfied by the production of the steel mill. Thus many left the city in order to step away from the failing area. Those that could not afford to move were forced to find work or at least try and find something that would help feed their families. Steelton today is a completely different area. My Grandparents often discus it as though it has died because what they remember is a place of great spirits, diversity, and growth but now it is a place many would consider a ghetto. Though the significance is not the same the main strip of Steelton acts similarly to that of 8-mile. The main strip leads people from the outskirts of Middletown to the inner city of Harrisburg. Middletown now has a large population of racist poor groups which is then separated by the impoverished area of Steelton, finally ending in the decaying city of Harrisburg. In this sense these are the neighborhoods in which 8-mile breaks Detroit into because you have too poor parties unhappy with the other and then first class ruling the control of the inner city. This comparison uses the presence that the decline of the industrial area had on these areas as well as its demographics.
My film of study was Midnight in Paris a movie in which the leading character Gil longs for nostalgic grand Paris in the 1920s. For discussion then I bring up the transformations and renovations of Paris from the 1860s-1920s which were carried out by Baron Haussmann and then continued with the agglomeration of the population and popularity of Paris among tourists. Modern Paris owes much of is lasting grandeur to the Haussmannization at the turn of the century. Haussmann’s brought form and a sense of order with wide avenues centralized around large squares and monuments. His development of new aqueducts, sewage systems and networks for gas lighting these avenues transformed forever the way people viewed the city of light and city life improved over time. It is debatable that he is the man that destroyed the old Paris having demolished 19,730 buildings and constructing 34,000 new ones. He changed the way people moved and lived within the city and changed the way people viewed it’s most important components creating a picturesque aesthetic throughout the now brightly streets.
http://www.museumofthecity.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/1.jpg
This new Parisian lifestyle and the ideals it upholds are best depicted in Gustave Caillbotte’s Paris Street Rainy Day (1877- oil on canvas - link above). The neoclassical buildings and organized streets are far from the Old Paris before Haussman’s transformations. Gas lamps are seen and bourgeoisie are depicted strolling through the lit streets. The quixotic romantic ideas of strolling through the new and grand city of Paris in the rain found in this painting have been instilled ever since Haussman’s inception of the grand city. Tourism has transformed these ideas further, creating this foreign perspective towards the city as a whole. We find them again in the movie as Gil longs for the same grand Paris depicted by his writing idol Hemingway and the same bourgeoisie atmosphere found in Paris Street Rainy Day. It is interesting to note that Woody Allen (director & writer) uses his characters to give us insight into the Americanized nostalgia that underlies within the idea of Paris. The city is shown through the Gil’s fiancé and her parents who act as stereotypical shopping tourists, and then Gil himself who longs for romanticized Parisian experiences in a better time. He ends having found his beautiful moment walking in Paris in the rain accepting the modern day city and the beauty it has to offer.
Also a link showing a map of modern day Paris with boulevards added by Baron Haussmann outlined in red
http://www.museumofthecity.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/AaH8ewRBKduVBKOPquv4U5Rl9TdgyVgju6uheUWrYI57YIztaNreNHS0HBCQvAH0cEYjr28PRrYNLuEO19N-oSOQo8zXSvSz_b5FJAQwSSqsnV_f6Lbn1CCgws.png
The film I chose to focus on portrays Irish influence in Boston through organized crime. Massachusetts carries a history of racial disparity between Americans and native-born population, and Irish immigrants. After the Civil War, many of the immigrants experienced poverty and discrimination due to their social behavior and religion. They suffered from poor living conditions and severe illnesses, and were used for hard, physical labor with low wages. However, those who established themselves socially and economically competed in Boston politics to organize and exert influence in the city. Ancestral immigrants in Boston continued to strive for a voice and create a notable community. The film captures the spirit of creating individual identity and establishing sense of self-worth within the city. As Woojae has dually noted, the Irish assimilated well into American culture through their own hard work and difficulties, and influenced Boston's history and culture. They developed their individual ethnic identity and shaped a lasting community.
(Link to photo of Irish population density: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/29/Irish_Population_1872.jpg)
A large population of Irish immigrants also travelled to New York, where they faced similar experiences. Today, we can see that the city is influenced by many cultures and shaped by different perspectives. The Irish have clearly established social, political, and economic influence and created a vast network of their own establishments, from small businesses, large media companies, and even to historical/art museums.
http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Ha-La/Irish-Americans.html
Phil S:
For the research paper that I wrote on the movie “Lost in Translation”, I spent some time learning about the city of Tokyo. Specifically, the film places a heavy focus on the Shinjuku ward, one of Tokyo’s commercial, administrative, and transportation hubs. Shinjuku’s legacy begins during the Edo period (1600 – 1867) when it was a major stopping point for people going to and from the Shogun Castle on the Koshu-kaido highway. Shinjuku’s inns and taverns made it a popular place for foot traffic. Later, as Japan’s railroad infrastructure expanded, it would receive Shinjuku Station in 1872, which is now the busiest mass transit station in the world. It was not until 1920 that Shinjuku would become a part of Tokyo, after it had already taken on a significant population. After the Tokyo Air Raids committed by the United States, which occurred between 1942 and 1945, Shinjuku was one of only areas that had some surviving transportation and residential infrastructure. To the same point, Shinjuku is one of the few areas of Tokyo that is relatively safe from earthquakes, which means it can have a higher number of tall skyscrapers and important government offices than other areas. Shinjuku did not become an official part of the city of Tokyo until 1947, just a short time after the bombings occurred.
Because Japan is one of the most culturally and ethnically homogenous nations in the world, there isn’t a distinct group that occupies Shinjuku. As far as Shinjuku today, it’s a sprawling epicenter of action and activity for Japan, and is home to nearly 1/3 of Tokyo’s tallest structures. The fact that Shinjuku appears as quintessentially Japanese is probably the strongest reason why it was used as the backdrop for Lost in Paradise. It has the perfect amount of over-crowded streets and allies, traditional parks and temples, flashing neon signs, and glitzy hotels and bars, to make it seem like it has everything.
I had a number of maps and resources available to study the evolution of Tokyo and Shinjuku. The most useful were a set of maps that showed the outward growth of Tokyo, both before and after the inclusion of Shinjuku, as well as a set of maps that showed aerial photographs of Tokyo before and after the Air Raids.
An area that I have studied in Mumbai is the area known as Dharavi, which is the central and second largest slum in the world, behind Orangi, found in Karachi, Pakistan. Within Dharavi there around one million people living in a one square mile location that people began to migrate to during the time of the booming textile industry. This is were Jamal grew up and as a young adult returns to the near by developed area to seek work. In both cities there are both slums and largely developed area that are fairly close to one another. At the beginning of the film you are shown the slums of Mumbai and how majority of the city is fairly under developed and by the end of the film you see how much development has been made over the course of ten years. Orangi and Mumbai both share a common relation to how quickly they are developing into world cities. In a way the film is based around this idea of development because the gameshow shows a part of the city that is more commercialized and therefor more into social interests. They have moved from a third world industry primarily focused on survival in slums toward a more booming leisure aspect of a first world city. If this development were to never had occurred the plot of the entire movie could not have transpired.
An interesting aspect of the film was when Jamal and his brother were looking over the slums where they used to live a top a unfinished building. You are able to see that although the skyscrapers are being built slums are still present within the same area. This same thing happens in Karachi and makes it hard to understand how development can be happening when so much of the area has people stricken with poverty. This study can be related to the development that was talked about in early lectures of Rome and how it developed using Roman ideas. Mumbai was becoming a commercial industry just like many other cities across the world. It was able to achieve these goals by copying other cities that became so large because of there focus on commercial globalization.
My Addendum covered the city of Boston and how the introduction of red brick at the founding of Harvard University went on to influence the development of Boston. The paper is arranged in PDF format and can be seen by following the link: file:///C:/Users/CraigWhitney/Documents/School/Spring%202016/Architecture/Addendum/Term%20Addendum%20-%20Whitney.pdf
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