Douglas C. Allen, ASLA

What comes first?

The House or the Street?

The Street

Suq Khan-E-Zeit, Jerusalem. The Roman Cardo, constructed in 136 AD

Jerusalem. The Roman Cardo, constructed in 136 AD.

Morphological (Form) COMPARISON

B L O C K D E N D R I T I C

Morphological (Form) COMPARISON

B L O C K D E N D R I T I C

Dendritic

The Street

MesopotamiaURc. 2600 BCE UR: The numbers represent how many rooms distant from the street

Shops and markets (retail)

School

Residential

Religious

Land Use

MesopotamiaAssur: c. 1300 BCE

Streets in Sana’a

Sana’a: Tertiary Street Fes: Tertiary Street. Source, National Geographic

Block

The Street

The houses of the gods were transferred or diagramed into a regularized map of four primary divisions. Each primary division had another four divisions, making a total of sixteen. The Pars Postica (Posteriori (literally) “behind me”), corresponded to the unseen gods of the infernal regions, and of the sky. Iuppiter, Juno, and Minerva belonged to the eastern or “oriental” division of this region. ”. The pars antica (Anteriori: (literally): the parts in “front of me”) related to the gods of the earth, the harvest, the fields, and the forest.

The East – West division corresponds to the Decumanus.

The North-South Division corresponds to the Cardo.

Templum of the Sky

Templum of the Earth

Pomerium

"...this ground the ancient Etruscan used to consecrate with augural ceremonies when a new town was to be founded. It was a narrow strip, precisely defined in width and following the course which the town wall would follow when it was built; its purpose was to keep the wall, on their inner side, clear of all buildings...and at the same time to leave, on the outer side of the walls, an area unpolluted by the use of man. The whole strip, then, which it was felt to be impious to build over, on the one side, or to cultivate on the other, was called 'pomerious' by the Romans...Whenever, with the growth of the city, it was proposed to increase the area enclosed within the walls, this strip of consecrated ground was pushed outward accordingly." (Livy….trans. A. de Selincourt, Penguin edition).

Timgad, North Africa

Templum: The four divisions of the sky are now united with the earth, oriented to the east, west (Decumanus) and to the north-south (Cardo)

Formation of the Pomerium (red line, boundary wall of the city); the two principal streets (Cardo and Decumanus); the Forum at their intersection (blue); the Capitolium to the north of the Forum (red rectangle), and subsequent public buildings around the edges (Basilica, Curia, other temples, and public buildings) The blocks formed by the streets are called Insula

View looking west on Decumanus. To the right is the theater. The two columns on the immediate right were originally associated with one of two nymphaeae, or fountains that flanked the theater. This one was converted to a Christian oratory in the early 4th century AD. St. Augustine of Hippo was awaiting passage to his native Numidia (Algeria) with his mother St. Monica. When she died in the early fourth century, AD.

Stonegate Street, York, England Decumanus Inferiore: Herculaneum

Towns of Roman Origin York

Provincial capital Eburacum.

.

Distribution of Human Activity in Space

Conceptual diagram of a City

A: Constitutional Order

1. Boundaries

2. Streets

3. Public Gathering Places

This precedes individual identity. Before there is a mine and a yours, there must be a division of territory that allows each of us to have an identity in relation to one another. This same diagram could apply to a house.

B: Economic Order

All else that exists within the boundaries of the Constitutional Frame.

Really Important Thing

(that insures our well-being)

In its own collective

(public) spaceIn Architectural terms:

A= PROPERTY LINE, WALL & Gate , STREET ,MONUMENT

PUBLIC PLACE. Each is carved out of the bounded world and normally would contain aMONUMENT OR OTHER PUBLIC BUILDING the purpose of which is to secure the future welfare of the group.

O U R S

.

Distribution of Human Activity in Space

Conceptual diagram of a City

A: Constitutional Order

1. Boundaries

2. Streets

3. Public Gathering Places

This precedes individual identity. Before there is a mine and a yours, there must be a division of territory that allows each of us to have an identity in relation to one another. This same diagram could apply to a house.

B: Economic Order

All else that exists within the boundaries of the Constitutional Frame.

Really Important Thing

(that insures our well-being)

In its own collective

(public) space

Mine Yours His Hers Theirs Theirs

Theirs TheirsTheirsTheirs

In Architectural terms:

A= PROPERTY LINE, WALL & Gate , STREET ,MONUMENT

PUBLIC PLACE. Each is carved out of the bounded world and normally would contain aMONUMENT OR OTHER PUBLIC BUILDING the purpose of which is to secure the future welfare of the group.

B = Mine, yours, hers, his, theirs. This could be any part of the domestic or economic order. It represents each such activity within the Constitutional Frame

Constitutional Order

The Constitutional Order brings a collective structure into being. It is political in nature. It organizes society, separates us from one another and joins us in a collective structure. It is prior to individual building. Every city has a Constitutional Order.

Boundaries: The Boundary is the fundamental tectonic unit of the City. It separates and joins discrete identities into a collective whole.

Streets: Streets are the primary structural unit of the City. They allow us to communicate and to move about. They constitute the order within the collective whole. Streets are complex “institutions” with great social, political, and economic depth. Giving them over to single functions depletes them of their historical role.

Public Places: Places where the public gathers, outside of their appropriation by the Oikos, where one is aware of their identity as a citizen.(An ambiguity has arisen where the market (private) has appropriated the forms of public spaces as surrogates for true public space. The giant plaza in front of the office building and the shopping mall are two common examples: the first driven by zoning incentives and a desire to be polite, the second as an ersatz street. These are social spaces and they have their relative value, but are not part of the political frame.)

Monuments: Though representational in nature, the monument and the memorial belong to the Politikos not to the Oikos. The purpose of the monument or the public building is to forge a bond between the past and the future, Monuments never look to the past, but to the future as they are intended to last, if not forever, for a very long time.

In the United States today, the first three of these are controlled by Subdivision Regulations

Economic Order

The representational order animates the constitutional frame and gives it meaning. The representational order is economic in nature. The Representational Order changes more rapidly over time than the constitutional order. It is fluid and subject to variations in exchange value. Its shape and nature, however, respond to the presence of the Political frame. It consists of:

Houses ( all types, including farms and Industrial production)

Markets (Commercial and Office)

The vast majority of architectural production falls within this category. Individual acts of building over time animate, to a large or small degree, the political framework.

In the United States today, these are controlled by zoning ordinances.

HOOVER COMMISSION1923

Congressional Approvals1924-1928

A STANDARD ZONING ENABLING ACT1924

A STANDARD CITY PANNING ENABLING ACT1928

In the United States today, the Constitutional Order is controlled by Subdivision Regulations

In the United States today, the Economic Order is controlled by Zoning Ordinances.

A STANDARD CITY PLANNING ENABLING STATUTESUMMARY

Enabling Statute: This is the compelling public purpose. Section 6 spells out not only the general powers of the lawful exercise of the Police Power, but obligates the municipality to prepare a Comprehensive (Master) Plan. Of note, here, is that the original (1928) conception of the comprehensive plan was clearly a physical plan, not a policy document. These two forms of representation have yet to come to terms.

Subdivision RegulationsConforms to AASHTO Standards

Regardless of the form it takes, cities consist of two orders: 1. Constitution: (Streets, Boundaries, Public Spaces, and Monuments) 2. Economic: (Land uses: residential, Commercial, and Industrial, Agricultural)

Georgia 400 at Haynes Bridge Road: To the right is the pattern of land use, roads, and buildings in 1976. The same area in 2010 is on the left

Georgia 400 at Haynes Bridge Road: Public Streets and Roads forming blocks

Georgia 400 at Haynes Bridge Road: Public Streets and Roads forming blocks

Georgia 400 at Haynes Bridge Road: Preserved public open space.

Georgia 400 at Haynes Bridge Road: Public Streets and Roads forming blocks and public space

Georgia 400 at Haynes Bridge Road: Public Streets and Roads forming blocks and public space, combined with private streets, drives, used as public streets (yellow and light blue

Georgia 400 at Haynes Bridge Road: Characterized by a street hierarchy based on capacity of traffic and horizontal differentiation of land use, combined with wetland and stream protection.

Observation: Since 1928, average block sizes have increased by a factor of 3.2

Pre 1928 Block Size Post 1928 Block Size

avg. max avg max

acres acres acres acres

1 Atlanta, GA 3.70 8.26 1 Atlanta, GA 22.87 44.49

2 Boston, MA 3.09 4.13 2 Boston, MA 9.45 14.46

3 Baltimore, Md 3.29 5.78 3 Baltimore, Md 14.93 22.72

4 Charleston, S.C. 4.12 6.07 4 Charleston, S.C. 16.89 25.25

5 Chicago, Illinois 3.51 4.96 5 Chicago, Illinois 14.74 19.10

6 Los Angeles, CA 4.41 7.89 6 Los Angeles, CA 8.01 16.08

7 New York, N.Y. (Manhattan) 2.60 3.67 7 New York, N.Y. (Outside Manhattan) 7.72 13.31

8 Omaha, Nebraska 4.34 8.26 8 Omaha, Nebraska 8.27 13.42

9 Portland, Oregon 1.92 3.72 9 Portland, Oregon 2.69 4.24

10 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 3.07 6.33 10 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 5.03 5.88

Average 3.41 5.91 11.06 17.90

Median 3.40 5.93 8.86 15.27

Std. Dev 0.79 1.80 6.14 11.42

Using Google Earth measuring tool, ten blocks known to have been constructed prior to 1928 were selected for each of ten cities; and ten blocks known to have been constructed after 1928 were selected for each of ten cities. Anomalies (airports, high schools, etc. ) were thrown out.

Observation 2: the standard deviation of average block size in the following selected cities has increased from .79 to 6.14 from pre-1928 subdivision to post -1928 subdivision.

Pre 1928 Block Size Post 1928 Block Size

avg. max avg max

acres acres acres acres

1 Atlanta, GA 3.70 8.26 1 Atlanta, GA 22.87 44.49

2 Boston, MA 3.09 4.13 2 Boston, MA 9.45 14.46

3 Baltimore, Md 3.29 5.78 3 Baltimore, Md 14.93 22.72

4 Charleston, S.C. 4.12 6.07 4 Charleston, S.C. 16.89 25.25

5 Chicago, Illinois 3.51 4.96 5 Chicago, Illinois 14.74 19.10

6 Los Angeles, CA 4.41 7.89 6 Los Angeles, CA 8.01 16.08

7 New York, N.Y. (Manhattan) 2.60 3.67 7 New York, N.Y. (Outside Manhattan) 7.72 13.31

8 Omaha, Nebraska 4.34 8.26 8 Omaha, Nebraska 8.27 13.42

9 Portland, Oregon 1.92 3.72 9 Portland, Oregon 2.69 4.24

10 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 3.07 6.33 10 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 5.03 5.88

Average 3.41 5.91 11.06 17.90

Median 3.40 5.93 8.86 15.27

Std. Dev 0.79 1.80 6.14 11.42

Map of North Fulton County, GA. Red Lines are blocks as defined by Fulton County Subdivision Regulations

5280 feet

160 acres

40 acres

North Fulton County, Alpharetta, GA

Map of Blocks

A block is here defined by a street that closes on itself, forming connections with other streets in a network. In some cases, the blocks of North Fulton County are larger than one mile per side.

One square = 330 x 330 ft.

Scale in Miles0 1 2

Learning from Philadelphia

Philadelphia: Penn-Holme Plan of 1682

Philadelphia, 1794

Philadelphia, 1794

Penn envisioned four public squares and a square of ten acres at the intersection of the two main streets. But the city developed according to market forces, with the economic center shifting to the intersection of the river and the primary street. The public squares and civic buildings would be made visible only later through their animation by individual acts of private building.

It was not until the last decades of the 19th century that the present city hall was erected on the “public square”. If we think about this in a certain way, it becomes clear that the diagram of the city, that is its plan, is itself a kind of building and as with the case of the Theater of Pompey, this “building” conditions the formation of the city as it is augmented by individual architectural acts over time.

Put another way, the plan of the streets, the formation of blocks, the subdivision of blocks into lots, and the designation of un-programmed public gathering places allows for the maximum articulation of individual architectural expression and responsiveness to the economics of use, while stabilizing the whole as an indexical system.

Philadelphia, 1794

Penn envisioned four public squares and a square of ten acres at the intersection of the two main streets. But the city developed according to market forces, with the economic center shifting to the intersection of the river and the primary street. The public squares and civic buildings would be made visible only later through their animation by individual acts of private building.

It was not until the last decades of the 19th century that the present city hall was erected on the “public square”. If we think about this in a certain way, it becomes clear that the diagram of the city, that is its plan, is itself a kind of building and as with the case of the Theater of Pompey, this “building” conditions the formation of the city as its is augmented by individual architectural acts over time.

Put another way, the plan of the streets, the formation of blocks, the subdivision of blocks into lots, and the designation of un-programmed public gathering places allows for the maximum articulation of individual architectural expression and responsiveness to the economics of use, while stabilizing the whole as an indexical system.

Philadelphia, 1794-1849

1794 1830 1849

Philadelphia, 1862-1930

1862 1885 1927

Philadelphia, 2005

View down Broad Street from Locust toward the “Public Square of Ten Acres”

Philadelphia 1855

Philadelphia 2009

Plan for Philadelphia. The original Plan is still visible in the urban structure of Philadelphia.

Philadelphia 2009

Plan for Philadelphia. The original Plan is still visible in the urban structure of Philadelphia.

Learning from Savannah

Savannah, Georgia 1734: This engraving by John Gordon was made in 1734, one year after the founding of the Colony. Note that the “squares” are the residual condition of the lot arrangement, not “objects” as they are perceived today.

Dimensions

LOTS:

A. Tithing: 60 x 90 ft.B. Trust 60 by variable within the range of

120 to 180 ft..

STREETS:

C. East-West and North-South Internal: 75 ft.D. North South Through Streets: 60 to 120 ft.E. East West through Streets 60 ft.F. Internal Through Streets 37’-6”*G. Alleys: 22’-6”

* Streets normally 37’-6” and lots 60 ft.

60'

300'

60'

90'

202'

-6"

90'

22'-6

"

60'

90'

60' 60'60'

300'

202'

-6"

38'

59'-6

"75

'59

'-6"

38'

90'

22'-6

"90

'

75' 300'

LOT 60'/90'

BLOCK 300'/202'-6"

675'

675'

WARD 675'/675'

SAVANNAH, GA.

1733 Plan

WARDS as Cellular Units

The wards form cellular units, repeated in serial fashion. The result is a complex grid comprised of streets internal to the wards and external streets between the wards. The external streets parallel to the river became major retail and commercial streets and planted avenues, while those running perpendicular to the river emerged as one-way arterial streets connecting the historic core of the city to the suburbs beyond.

SAVANNAH, GA.

1733 Plan

WARDS as Cellular Units

The wards form cellular units, repeated in serial fashion. The result is a complex grid comprised of streets internal to the wards and external streets between the wards. The external streets parallel to the river became major retail and commercial streets and planted avenues, while those running perpendicular to the river emerged as one-way arterial streets connecting the historic core of the city to the suburbs beyond.

SAVANNAH, GA.

1733 Plan

WARDS as Cellular Units

The wards form cellular units, repeated in serial fashion. The result is a complex grid comprised of streets internal to the wards and external streets between the wards. The external streets parallel to the river became major retail and commercial streets and planted avenues, while those running perpendicular to the river emerged as one-way arterial streets connecting the historic core of the city to the suburbs beyond.

SAVANNAH, GA.

1733 Plan

Squares Objectified:

When the wards are repeated, the squares become objects, connected visually across the wards. The streets internal to the wards are interrupted by squares, perhaps the best known contemporary feature of the plan. Originally the residual area remaining from the subdivision of the lots, the squares took on a variety of memorial and civic functions over time. The perception of the city today is of the repetitive squares, each with a different programmatic or memorial representation associated with it.

SAVANNAH, GA.

1733 Plan

SAVANNAH

Directional Bias: Lots

The lot configurations are NOT directionally neutral, but are biased, directionally. This produces a reinforcement of the squares as objectified civic space for both the tithing and trust lots that :face” the squares. The streets at the north and south edges of the wards face outward. As additional wards are added, these lots bind their face to the lots across the street. Over time, this animation of facades along the streets parallel to the river (east-west below), creates streets with an architectural character and land use pattern quite different from the inward facing lots.

SAVANNAH, GA.

1733 Plan

Streets Type A:

Streets formed by the ward (internal to the ward) connect the outside to the inside.

SAVANNAH, GA.

1733 Plan

Streets Type B:

Streets formed along the seams of the wards. These become through streets connecting the center of the city (River) to the fields (and suburbs) beyond. Streets between Wards became alternating one-way pairs of higher speed arterial streets connecting the historic core of the city with the suburbs

SAVANNAH, GA.

1733 Plan

Streets Type C:

Streets formed along the seams of the wards (East West). These become Avenues, connecting the east side of the city to the west side of the city.

SAVANNAH, GA.

1733 Plan

Directional Bias: Lots

As additional wards are added, these lots bind their face to the lots across the street. Over time, this animation of facades along the streets parallel to the river (east-west below), creates streets with an architectural character and land use pattern quite different from the inward facing lots.

SAVANNAH, GA.

1733 Plan

Alleys

The bias in lot direction is derived form the alleys that split the tithing blocks into two sections. The alleys are 22’6” in width (varying slightly over time to between 21 and 24 feet)

SAVANNAH, GA.

1733 Plan

SAVANNAH, GA.

1733 Plan

Streets Type C₁

Streets formed along the seams of the wards (East West). These become Avenues, connecting the east side of the city to the west side of the city.

Liberty Street: A 200 ft. right-of-way with planted median forms a broad avenue stretching form side to side.

SAVANNAH, GA.

1733 Plan

Bull Street View from Johnson Square to City Hall 2004

The Obelisk is a monument to Nathaniel Greene, Hero of the Revolution. It is in Dialogue with City Hall.

The location of City Hall outside the field of wards, aligned with one file of squares, charges that file as a civic spine, allowing the squares aligned with it to function as sites for memorials while leaving the other squares free to assume other “duties”.

The location of City Hall outside the field of wards, aligned with one file of squares, charges that file as a civic spine, allowing the squares aligned with it to function as sites for memorials while leaving the other squares free to assume other “duties”.

The location of City Hall outside the field of wards, aligned with one file of squares, charges that file as a civic spine, allowing the squares aligned with it to function as sites for memorials while leaving the other squares free to assume other “duties”. The red square will become city market, taking on an economic rather than a civic function.

SAVANNAH

Bull StreetWright Square/Johnson Square 1875

Old City Hall is on axis with the square in the background. Note the Obelisk, a monument to Gen. Nathaniel Greene. The lot at the bottom is an original Tything lot with 60 ft. frontage onto the Square.

SAVANNAH

Bull Street View from Wright Square to City Hall 1924

Learning from new York

SAVANNAH

Bull Street View from Wright Square to City Hall 2004

The Obelisk is a monument to Nathaniel Greene, Hero of the Revolution

John Randel’s map showing Midtown Manhattan. The area labeled Bloomingdale Square would be built over, but from 5th and 59th north would become Central Park.

The New York Times has published an interactive map that allows you to alternate between the 1811 plan and the present. See: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/21/nyregion/map-of-how-manhattan-grid-grew.html?ref=nyregion

John Randel Jr., the secretary, surveyor and chief engineer for New York City’s street commissioners, was hardly the most popular public servant of his day. Beginning in 1808, 21 year old Randel and his colleagues were pelted with artichokes and cabbages; arrested by the sheriff for trespassing (and often bailed out by Richard Varick, a former mayor); sued for damages after pruning trees; and attacked by dogs sent by property owners who were irate at the prospect of streets’ being plowed through their properties (“many of whose descendants have been made rich thereby,” Randel noted later). Randel had quite a commute. Nearly every morning beginning in 1808, he would walk north from downtown, navigating a wooden plank over the ditch that cut through Lispenard’s salt meadow. He would hike past Aaron Burr’s former country home at Richmond Hill, acknowledge Thomas Paine, reading at the first-floor window of his house on what became Bleecker Street, and finally arrive at his office on Christopher Street in the village of Greenwich.

The surveyors fought their way though forests, shrubs and briars “impassible without the aid of an ax.” Randel spent the next 10 years staking out and marking the intersections from First Street to 155th Street with 1,549 three-foot-high marble monuments and, when the ground was too rocky, with 98 iron bolts secured by lead. (He had to resurvey 30 miles after vandals or disgruntled property owners removed the markers.) He also charted the terrain to the northern tip of Manhattan to produce his “farm map,” of 92 sheets filling four volumes that together would measure 11 by 50 feet.

Taking precise measurements with instruments he invented (a 50-foot iron ruler expands 0.0003585 feet with each degree of temperature, he concluded), he filled more than 40 leather books with field notes

View of Second Avenue looking north from 42nd Street by Egbert L. Viele, 1861. (Museum of the City of New York.)

View of Second Avenue looking north from 42nd Street 2011. (Google Earth Image)

SAVANNAH

Johnson Square 1872

Real history is not made by preserving old buildings or freezing the present into an ossified version of the past. Real history is made when each successive generation, subject to their own condition, can write their own story into a place. The stability of the public frame (constitutional order) allows the representation of the present to fluctuate according to its own needs, while assuring continuity between past and future.

The photograph on the right is of a rally for General Ulysses S. Grant during the Presidential Campaign of 1872. The Doric church on the right (Trust Lot) is now a parking deck. The Doric church on the left remains as it was 132 years ago.

The monument to Nathaniel Greene is just out of the photograph on the left.