Design after decline
Subtitle: how America rebuilds shrinking cities
By: Brent D. Ryan
Edition: 1st ed.
Series: The city in the twenty-first century; City in the twenty-first century
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Philadelphia
Language: eng
Number of pages: 261
ISBN-13: 9780812244076
Subjects: Urban Land use; Urban renewal; Urban policy; City planning
Description: In Design After Decline, Brent D. Ryan reveals the fraught and intermittently successful efforts of architects, planners, and city officials to rebuild shrinking cities following mid-century urban renewal. With modern architecture in disrepute, federal funds scarce, and architects and planners disengaged, politicians and developers were left to pick up the pieces. In twin narratives, Ryan describes how America's two largest shrinking cities, Detroit and Philadelphia, faced the challenge of design after decline in dramatically different ways. While Detroit allowed developers to carve up the cityscape into suburban enclaves, Philadelphia brought back 1960s-style land condemnation for benevolent social purposes. Both Detroit and Philadelphia "succeeded" in rebuilding but at the cost of innovative urban design and planning. -- Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.