Seeing

CITIES

A R T 1 0 0

U n d e r s t a n d i n g V i s u a l C u l t u r e

agenda 3.21.15

what do people want...from cities?

Abraham Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs"

early cities: characteristic features of cities

an early example of "urban planning"

modern discipline of urban planning

what principles should guide our planning?

Abraham MASLOW

US psychologist

"A Theory of Human Motivation"

(1943)

first key feature: site

Q: what makes one site better than another?

is Beijing an exception?

Grand Canal

• artificial waterway running from Beijing in the north to

Zhejiang province in the south.

• built in sections beginning in the 5th century BC; unified

and extended during the Sui (7th century AD). Largest civil

engineering project prior to the Industrial Revolution.

• transport of grain, rice, and other raw materials;

communication across large distances

• by the 13th century it consisted of more than 1,200 miles

linked waterways, connecting five of China’s main river

basins.

Traditional ways of life are still present on the canal, but many areas have opted

instead for to retool for the tourist trade.

After restoration, Zhouzhuang now draws more than 2.5 million sightseers a year.

what else do you need?

food supply (imported from agricultural areas)

water supply (often transported through aqueducts from

distant areas)

place of protection (often walled)

city characteristics

• physical geography—the shape of the earth, the location

of rivers, coasts and navigable harbors, will dictate the

placement of cities

• size/density of population

• structure of society

• artisans, craftsman, builders (making useful things)

• people who buy, sell, trade, and finance (merchants and

bankers)

• record-keeping and communication

• public buildings and spaces (for civic and religious

spaces)

social structures tend to grow "deep" or "tall" over time

teacher

student student student student student student

These are oil paintings from the 1830s

made by US artist George Catlin during

one of his Western trips.

mounds at Cahokia, IL

physical evidence of prior civilization

physical evidence of previous

society

St. Louis was called “Mound City” in the 19th century, but

almost all mounds were gone by turn of 20th century.

There is only one mound left, and a road called “Mound

St.”

Cahokia also was partially destroyed, but with 4,000 acres

still remaining, it is largest archaeological site in the US.

who were the people who built this massive earthen structure?

what was their civilization like?

Cahokia facts

located in fertile bottomland around Mississippi River

largest structure is 16 acres at the base—larger footprint

than the Pyramid of Khufu—and 10 stories high

constructed from 22 million cubic feet of earth (deposited

by the basketful by a huge workforce)

plaza oriented to cardinal directions

large outlying agricultural areas and suburbs

1050-1150 population and building boom in “downtown”

Cahokia, approx. 20,000 inhabitants (larger than London

at the time)

stockade fence 2 miles in circumference surrounding the

complex; from tree ring dating we know when this was

built and it corresponds to a time of food scarcity.

“The idea that American Indians could have built

something resembling a city was so foreign to European

settlers, that when they encountered the mounds of

Cahokia—the largest of which is a ten-story earthen

colossus composed of more than 22 million cubic feet of

soil—they commonly thought they must have been the

work of a foreign civilization: Phoenicians or Vikings or

perhaps a lost tribe of Israel.”

—Glenn Hodges, “America’s Forgotten

City” (National Geographic, January 2011)

Monk’s Mound, Cahokia, IL

Burial Excavation showing position of bodies, Cahokia, IL

what is beneath the ground?

hundreds of thousands of objects, suggesting the presence of a large agricultural society

many are functional like farming implements

but there are also musical instruments, games, and sculptures, suggesting a high level of social organization/stratification

Nursing Mother

ceramic figure/bottle

c. 1100

“Birger Figurine”

c. 1100

carved from bauxite

aerial view, Monk’s Mound, Cahokia, IL

reconstruction of what Cahokia might have looked like

artist’s rendering of the Grand Plaza at Cahokia with surrounding housing

artist’s rendering of family housing in Cahokia

Urban planning An essentially modern

discipline.

Considering various

needs and activities and

organizing them into

thoughtful, pleasing

shape.

• services

• circulation

• structures

• open space

The application of design

principles to the city space.

Central Park, Frederick Law OLMSTED and Calvert VAUX, 1858, completed 1873

aerial photograph, Manhattan, NYC

Paris,

before

urban

planning

Charles MARVILLE,

Rue Maître Albert,

Paris, 1852

Charles Marville,

Passage du Dragon,

Paris, 1858

Under Napoleon III

• Haussmann undertook what many consider the first modern

urban works project, demolishing many existing neighborhoods

to make way for grand boulevards and parks.

• He installed a sewer system.

• Gas lighting was placed in major public places.

• He hired photographers to document the medieval streets he

was plowing under.

Unidentified photographer

[Barricade on Rue de la Roquette, Paris]

18 March 1871, Cabinet card

Unidentified photographer

[Barricades during the Paris Commune]

1871 © Det Kongelige Bibliotek

Maximilien LUCE, A Street in Paris, May 1871, 1903-6, Musée d’Orsay

oil on canvas, w2250 x h1510 cm, © RMN (Musée d'Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski

Gustave CAILLEBOTTE, Boulevard Haussmann in the Snow, 1881

Camille PISSARRO, Boulevard Montmartre, 1897, 29.1 × 36.5 in

Camille Pissarro, Avenue de L’Opera, 1898

Gustave CAILLEBOTTE, Traffic Island in the Boulevard Haussmann

Charles Garnier, Paris Opera, built from 1860 to 1875

Marville, L’Avenue de l’Opera

razing the Butte des Moulins during c

onstruction of the Paris Opera house

grand cultural institutions,

then and now

Urban planning, NY style

“I’d like to see the planner who can remove

a ghetto without displacing some people,

just like I’d like to see the chef who can

make an omelette without breaking some

eggs.”

—Robert Moses, New York City planner

and nemesis of Jane Jacobs

“creative destruction”Joseph Schumpeter

Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942)

Robert

Moses,

with the

map of

the Five

Boroughs

of New York

City

behind him

Robert Moses

NYC Parks Commissioner

built parkways, beaches and bridges in and around New

York in the 1930s, using New Deal funds

postwar period, attention turned to expressways

“When I first looked at this

project, I thought, "How the hell

are we going to get across

here?" It was probably one of

the most challenging highway

projects that had been

constructed, or even

conceived, up until that time. I

dare say that only a man like

Mr. Moses would have the

audacity to believe that one

could push (the expressway)

from one end of the Bronx to

the other.“

—Ernest Clark, design team

The "Cross Bronx"

Expressway

Moses vs. Jacobs

The Cross-Bronx Expressway, today

The Death and Life of

Great American Cities

(1961)Has become a touchstone for planners and architects associated

with the New Urbanism.

Jacobs, p. 8

“Specifically, in the case of planning for cities, it is clear

that a large number of good and earnest people do care

deeply about building and renewing. Despite some

corruption, and considerable greed for the other man's

vineyard, the intentions going into the messes we make

are, on the whole, exemplary.”

Jacobs, p. 8

“Planners, architects of city design, and those they have led along with them in their beliefs are not consciously disdainful of the importance of knowing how things work. On the contrary, they have gone to great pains to learn what the saints and sages of modern orthodox planning have said about how cities ought to work and what ought to be good for people and businesses in them. They take this with such devotion that when contradictory reality intrudes, threatening to shatter their dearly won learning, they must shrug reality aside.”

Her proposal:

Let’s study healthy streets and blocks and

develop a set of principles they share in

common.

We can use those principles to guide ne w

development.

http://inframanage.com/urbanization-1950-2050-economist-magazine-interactive-

timeline-infrastructure-management-perspective/

Kilwa, city of the Zanj people (now Tanzania)