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Colonial Urbanism, Public Parks, and Early American Identity

London 1666: Great Fire, materials, and the rebirth of urban design

  • 1666 Great London Fire breaks out in a city built largely of wood; wood is cheap, malleable, and abundant, and concrete/steel were not in use yet.
  • Fire logic: once one structure catches, nearby wooden structures are highly vulnerable; a large-scale urban conflagration is likely.
  • Royal Commission and Christopher Wren are commissioned to redesign parts of London after the fire.
  • Wren’s proposal contrasts with the traditional gridiron: he designs a radial city (hub-and-spoke) with grand boulevards radiating from central hubs and a gridiron laid out within pie-shaped sectors.
  • Radial city concept (hub-and-spoke):
    • Central hubs with wide boulevards (the spokes) reaching outward; districts arranged in pie pieces.
    • Within each pie piece, a gridiron is embedded to organize streets and blocks.
    • Wide boulevards serve multiple purposes: ease of movement, aesthetic grandeur, and the strategic advantage of crowd/riot control (troop movements can be routed along broad streets).
  • The aim: create grand, beautiful, and imperial urban forms befitting a capital city; the model is intended to spread through Europe and American cities.
  • Paris later adopts and adapts parallel ideas under Baron Haussmann; boulevards become avenues for movement and also serve as battleground-like spaces during uprisings (1848 Paris).
  • Versailles example: the value lies not just in architecture but in designed green spaces; private parks adjacent to the palace inspire the public park concept—transplanting park-like spaces into public urban life.
  • Implications for urban design thinking: grand boulevards, public parks, and a hybrid of radial and grid patterns influence how cities balance aesthetics, density, mobility, and social control.

From European models to American cities: borrowing and adapting ideas

  • Americans borrow European urban planning concepts, then transplant and modify them in the colonies; the Atlantic transfer reveals a process of identity-building through space.
  • The gridiron (Spain’s influence) is retained by Americans due to practicality and preference for simple navigation; the radial city is attempted but not fully adopted in North America.
  • The evolution marks a transition from a frontier/poster-child of early colonial towns to more legitimate, organized urban spaces with aspirational design.

Walking cities: density, proximity, and social life in Boston and Philadelphia

  • Sam Bass Moore coined the term walking cities to describe colonial urban form in America.
  • Characteristics of walking cities:
    • High density with everything needed within a short distance; walking is the default mode of mobility.
    • Dense, mixed-use fabric where homes, workplaces, taverns, coffee houses, and markets sit in close proximity.
    • Social life revolves around public spaces where news and conversation circulate (coffee houses and taverns as information hubs).
  • Boston (colonial era painting) is presented as a dense, compact urban core; residents live and work in close quarters and commute on foot.
  • The walking city fosters a social space for discussion of politics, news, and ideas, contributing to an emergent sense of American identity and growing desire for independence from Britain.
  • Philadelphia is highlighted as another walking city, with a harbor and a density pattern similar to Boston; the layout supports quick movement and dense interaction.
  • Implications for identity: urban form contributes to a proto-democratic civic culture where public discourse in common spaces accelerates a break with the mother country.

William Penn’s Philadelphia: gridiron, rivers, and public parks

  • William Penn receives a royal charter to establish a colony in North America (present-day Pennsylvania).
  • Geographic challenge: Philadelphia sits between two rivers—the Delaware to the east and the Schuylkill to the west—so a simple gridiron across a river-to-river axis is implemented.
  • Penn adopts a pure gridiron extensively (gridiron to the river-to-river span): a robust, regular street pattern that supports efficient movement and growth.
  • Public parks as fixed, undevelopable spaces:
    • Four quadrants central to the gridiron each include reserved park spaces that are not to be developed.
    • Parks are deliberately integrated into the urban fabric to provide respite and nature amid density.
  • Penn’s innovation blends old and new: the grid