Engineering > Urban Studies and Planning > Introduction to Urban Design and Development

Introduction to Urban Design and Development posted by duggu on 2/2/2008

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Abstract/Syllabus

Courseware/Lectures

Test/Tutorials

Course Highlights

This course features a complete list of readings and assignments.

Course Description

This course examines both the structure of cities and ways they can be changed. Its scope includes historical forces that have produced cities, models of urban analysis, contemporary theories of urban design, and implementation strategies. Core lectures are supplemented by discussion sessions focusing on student work and field trips. Guest speakers present cases involving current projects illustrating the scope and methods of urban design practice.

Syllabus

Course Description

This subject introduces graduate students to ideas about the form of cities and how they are designed and developed. The subject is organized into two parts:

Part 1 explores the Forces which act to shape and to change cities. Starting with Boston and the American city as a reference, we will examine key forces affecting contemporary urban development, including the market, social forces, public development, regulation of private development, and incentives to encourage good design. Finally we will consider how cities define a vision for their future and how these are articulated in plans and proposals. Lectures will be supplemented by guest presentations, case studies and field trips.

Part 2 surveys Models of urban design which have been invented in response to forces acting on cities. We will discuss the evolution of each model and its current impact on design and development in cities worldwide, located in Great Britain, Italy, China, and elsewhere. Included are notions about the Traditional City, the City as a Work of Art, the Efficient City, the Garden City, the Secure City, the Information City, and the Virtual City. The application of each model will be illustrated in case studies and guest presentations.

Course Requirements

Work for the class will include readings, class participation, and two papers, related to the two units of the course. Students will also be required to keep a simple journal reflecting on the readings. Readings provide a context for class lectures and are also intended to expose students to the ideas of key urban design theorists on the topics presented. Please complete all required readings in advance of each class.

Grading

Grading criteria.
Activities	Percentages
Two Papers and Journal	75%
Participation in Class, Sections, and Field Trips	25%

Calendar

Course calendar.
SES #	Topics	KEY DATES
1	Introduction
Part 1: Forces Affecting Urban Development
2	Viewpoints on the City	Assignment 1 out
3	The Forces that Made Boston
4	Walking Tour of Boston
5	The Market
6	Case Study: Boston's West End Guest: James Campano, Editor, The West Ender	Identify place for Assignment 1
7	Social Forces
8	The Public Will
9	The Public Wish
10	Case Study: Shaping Private Development / The Case Of Smart Growth Guest: Prof. Terry Szold, Principal, Community Planning Solutions
11	Discussion Session (In Sections)
12	Public / Private Partnerships
13	Field Visit: Boston Redevelopment Authority
14	Visions
15	Walking Tour of Providence / Waterfire Guide: Barnaby Evans, Creator / Producer of Waterfire
16	Discussion of Assignment 1 (In Sections)	Assignment 1 due
Part 2: Models of Urban Design and Development
17	The Traditional City	Assignment 2 out
18	The City as a Work of Art
19	Case Study: Tradition and Invention in City Design / The Case of San Diego Guest: Adele Naude Santos, Dean, School of Architecture and Planning
20	Case Study: The Political Art of Capital Cities Guest: Larry Vale, Head, MIT DUSP
21	The Efficient City
22	Case Study: Globalizing Cities Guest: Yung Ho Chang, Head, MIT Department of Architecture
23	Urban Nature
24	Discussion Session (In Sections)
25	Case Study: The End of the Suburbia? Guest: Prof. Robert Fishman, University of Michigan, Historian and Critic
26	The Secure City
27	The Information City
28	The Virtual City Guest: Prof. William Mitchell, MIT Design Lab
29	Debating the Models
30	The Good City	Assignment 2 due
31	Wrap-up

Readings

Course readings.
SES #	Topics	READINGS
1	Introduction	Schurch, Thomas. "Reconsidering Urban Design: Thoughts about its Definition and Status as a Field or Profession." Journal of Urban Design 4, no. 1 (1999): 5-28.
Part 1: Forces Affecting Urban Development
2	Viewpoints on the City	Clay, Grady. "Introduction, Word Game, Fixes." In Close Up. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1980, pp. 11-37. ISBN: 0226109453. Jackson, J. B. "The Stranger's Path." In Landscapes. Boston, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1952, pp. 92-106. ISBN: 0870230549. Lynch, Kevin. "City Image and Its Elements." In Image of the City. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1960, pp. 46-90. ISBN: 0262620014.
3	The Forces that Made Boston	Whitehill, Walter Muir. Boston: A Topographical History. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1975. ISBN: 0674002687. (General reference for Assignment 1.) Seasholes, Nancy. Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003. ISBN: 0262194945. (General reference for Assignment 1.) Lynch, Kevin. "Form Values in Urban History." In A Theory of Good City Form. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984, pp. 5-36. IBSN: 0262620464.
4	Walking Tour of Boston
5	The Market	Morrill, Richard. "The Urban System and Urban Structure." In The Spatial Organization of Society. North Scituate, MA: Duxbury Press, 1974, pp. 155-174. ISBN: 087872057X.
6	Case Study: Boston's West End Guest: James Campano, Editor, The West Ender	Gans, Herbert. "The West End: An Urban Village," and "Redevelopment of the West End." In The Urban Villagers. New York, NY: London Free Press, 1982, pp. 3-41 and 281-304. ISBN: 0029112400. Langdon, Philip. "Eminent Domain Goes to Court." Planning 71, no. 4 (2005): 12-15. Kelo vs. City of New London, 268 Conn. 1, 843 A. 2d 500, affirmed. Supreme Court of the United States, 2005, pp. 1-2. Browse selected issues of this newspaper: Campano, James, ed. The West Ender.
7	Social Forces	Jacobs, Jane. "The Uses of City Neighborhoods." In The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York, NY: Modern Library, 1993, pp. 112-140. ISBN: 0679600477. Sklar, Holly. "Creating a Sustainable Urban Village: The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative," and "Real Insurance." Orion 15, no. 4 (Autumn 1996): 28-38.
8	The Public Will	Sutcliffe, Anthony. "Grand Design." In The Autumn of Central Paris. London, UK: Edward Arnold, 1970, pp. 11-42. ISBN: 0713155493. Caro, Robert. "The Warp On the Loom." In The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. New York, NY: Knopf, 1974, pp. 615-636. ISBN: 0394720245.
9	The Public Wish	Barnett, Jonathan. "Designing Cities Without Designing Buildings." In An Introduction to Urban Design. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1982, pp. 57-97. ISBN: 0064301141. Kayden, Jerold S. "Record." In Privately Owned Public Space: The New York City Experience. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, 2001, pp. 43-59. ISBN: 0471362573. Muschamp, Herbert. "Reaching for Power Over Streets and Sky." New York Times, May 28, 2000, p. 1.
10	Case Study: Shaping Private Development / The Case Of Smart Growth Guest: Prof. Terry Szold, Principal, Community Planning Solutions	Szold, Terry. "The Local Arena - Changing Regulations and Standards to Address Sprawl." Chapter 20 in Urban Sprawl: A Comprehensive Guide. Edited by David Soule. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 2005. ISBN: 0313320381.
11	Discussion Session (In Sections)
12	Public / Private Partnerships	Frieden, Bernard, and Lynne Sagalyn. "Entrepreneurial Cities and Maverick Developers, Deal Making, Getting and Spending." In Downtown, Inc. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990, pp. 107-154. ISBN: 0262560593. Loukaitou-Sideris, Anastasia, and Tridib Banerjee. Urban Design Downtown. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998, pp. 103-148. ISBN: 0520209303.
13	Field Visit: Boston Redevelopment Authority	Campbell, Robert. "After the Big Dig, the Big Question: Where's the Vision?" Boston Globe, May 26, 2002. ———. "Beyond the Big Dig National Panel Recommendations." Boston Globe, May 30, 2002. Review the following Web site prior to the BRA field visit: Beyond the Big Dig.
14	Visions	Campbell, Robert. "After the Big Dig, the Big Question: Where's the Vision?" Boston Globe, May 26, 2002. ———. "Beyond the Big Dig National Panel Recommendations." Boston Globe, May 30, 2002.
15	Walking Tour of Providence / Waterfire Guide: Barnaby Evans, Creator / Producer of Waterfire	Frenchman, Dennis. "Event Places in North America: City Meaning and Making." Places 16, no. 3 (Fall 2004): 36-49.
16	Discussion of Assignment 1 (In Sections)
Part 2: Models of Urban Design and Development
17	The Traditional City	Reps, John W. "New Towns in New England," and "Carolina and Georgia." In Town Planning in Frontier America. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1980, pp. 100-117 and 162-180. Kunstler, James Howard. "Home From Nowhere." The Atlantic Monthly 278, no. 3 (1996): 43-46. Krier, Leon. "Master Plan for Poundbury Development in Dorchester." Prince Charles and the Architectural Debate, Architectural Design 59, no. 5/6 (1989): 46-55. Baer, William C. "General Plan Evaluation Criteria: An Approach to Making Better Plans." Journal of the American Planning Association 63, no. 3 (1997): 329-343. "The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh Visit Poundbury." Press Release, Friday, March 8, 1998.
18	The City as a Work of Art	Sitte, Camillo. City Planning According to Artistic Principles. Translated by George R. Collins and Christiane Crasemann Collins. Originally published in 1899. New York, NY: Random House, 1965, pp. 3-19 and 83-111. Barnett, Jonathan. "The Monumental City." In The Elusive City. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1986, pp. 5-62. ISBN: 0064301559. Krier, Rob. "Reconstructing Devastated Spaces With Examples from the Center of Stuttgart." In Urban Space. London, UK: Academy Editions, 1991, pp. 89-111. ISBN: 0856705764.
19	Case Study: Tradition and Invention in City Design / The Case of San Diego Guest: Adele Naude Santos, Dean, School of Architecture and Planning	Appleyard, Donald, and Kevin Lynch. Temporary Paradise: A Look at the Special Landscape of the San Diego Region. San Diego, CA: City Planning Department, 1974.
20	Case Study: The Political Art of Capital Cities Guest: Larry Vale, Head, MIT DUSP	Vale, Lawrence. "Capital and Capitol." In Architecture, Power, and National Identity. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995, pp. 1-43. ISBN: 0300049587.
21	The Efficient City	Fischler, Raphael. "The Metropolitan Dimension of Early Zoning: Revisiting the 1916 New York City Ordinance." Journal of the American Planning Association 64, no. 2 (Spring 1998): 170-188. Bush, Donald. "The World of Tomorrow." In The Streamlined Decade. New York, NY: Brazillier, 1975, pp. 154-170. ISBN: 0807607924. Corbusier, Le. "A Contemporary City," and "The Working Day." In The City of To-morrow and Its Planning. London, UK: Architectural Press, 1987, pp. 158-194. ISBN: 0486253325.
22	Case Study: Globalizing Cities Guest: Yung Ho Chang, Head, MIT Department of Architecture	Husock, Howard. "The Widening of Ping An Avenue: Making Decisions about Historic Preservation." Kennedy School of Government Case #1525.2. Cambridge, MA: John F. Kennedy School of Government, October 12, 1998. Wu, Liangyong. "The City of Beijing in Historic Perspective." In Rehabilitating the Old City of Beijing: A Project in the Ju'er Hutong Neighbourhood. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 1999, pp. 3-15. ISBN: 0774807261. "Appetite for Destruction." Time (Asia), March 5, 2001.
23	Urban Nature	Williams, Raymond. "Ideas of Nature." In Problems in Materialism and Culture. New York, NY: Verso, 1980, pp. 67-85. ISBN: 0860917290. Ward, Stephen V., ed. "The Garden City Introduced." In The Garden City: Past, Present and Future. London, UK: E & FN Spon, 1992, pp. 1-27. ISBN: 0419173102. Spirn, Anne Whiston. "City and Nature." In The Sustainable Urban Development Reader. Edited by Stephen M. Wheeler and Timothy Beatley. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004, pp. 113-115. ISBN: 041531187X.
24	Discussion Session (In Sections)
25	Case Study: The End of the Suburbia? Guest: Prof. Robert Fishman, University of Michigan, Historian and Critic	Fishman, Robert. "Beyond Sprawl: The New American Metropolis." In In the Middle of the Edge: From the Suburb to Sprawl to the Regional City. Edited by Lars Boelling and Thomas Sieverts. Wuppertal, Germany: Mueller and Busmann, 2004, pp. 138-161. ISBN: 3928766597. O'Hehir, Andrew. "Soul of the Suburbs." Salon, April 13, 2000.
26	The Secure City	Davis, Mike. "Fortress L.A." In City of Quartz. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1992, pp. 221-263. ISBN: 0679738061. Low, Setha. "Unlocking the Gated Community." In Behind the Gates: Life, Security, and the Pursuit of Happiness in Fortress America. London, UK; New York, NY: Routledge, 2003, pp. 7-26. ISBN: 0415944384. Fan, Maureen. "Block by Block, Access Denied." Washington Post, August 22, 2004, pp. 1-4. National Capital Planning Commission. The National Capital Urban Design and Security Plan. Washington, DC: National Capital Planning Commission, 2002. (Skim)
27	The Information City	Harvey, David. "Time Space Compression and the Postmodern Condition." In The Condition of Postmodernity. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 1990, pp. 285-307. ISBN: 0631162941. Venturi, Robert, and Denise Scott Brown. Architecture as Signs and Systems. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2004, pp. 12-40 and 93-101. ISBN: 0674015711. Frenchman, Dennis, and Francisca Rojas. "Zaragoza's Digital Mile: Place-making in a New Public Realm." Places 18, no. 3, (2006). (forthcoming)
28	The Virtual City Guest: Prof. William Mitchell, MIT Design Lab	Mitchell, William J. "Prologue: Urban Requiem," and "March of the Meganets." In E-topia. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999, pp. 3-29. ISBN: 0262133555.
29	Debating the Models
30	The Good City	Lynch, Kevin. "Between Heaven and Hell." In A Theory of Good City Form. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984, pp. 51-72. ISBN: 0262620464.
31	Wrap-up