21. Siena: Piazza del Campo, paved in 1413. The huge, shell-shaped public square in the center of Siena is set between the three hills upon which the city is built. Admirable use is made of the natural slope to give the Public Palace its dominating position. Eleven streets run out from the square, and the white marble stripes of the pavement shoot out like rays from a lighthouse at the focal point of the community.

22. FRANCESCO DI GIORGIO. Piazza of an ideal city. The interesting treatment of different levels, and the surprisingly modern spatial setting reveal the experience of a practiced sculptor. The human figures scattered here and there show that he saw columns in space, varied planes, and sculptures, all in relation to moving people. These are problems that in our period are again coming to the fore, as can be seen in certain aspects of the work of Alberto Giacometti.

## 2. Street of the Future, 1910

### Eugène Hénard

Hénard proposes a double-decked, multi-level street on which public trolleys, carriages, automobiles, and bicycles circulate in the open air. Below the deck a service street links directly into abutting buildings, while utility conduits and rapid transit channels run along the lowest level. Hénard envisioned helicopter service to rooftop landing pads before the helicopter was invented. Wall conduits suck pollutants such as dirt, smoke, and furnace exhaust into the below-grade trash removal system, then into bins to be carted away by rail-guided service carts below the street. Automobiles are stored within each dwelling so that the street, the public space of the city, remains open for public use.

## 3. Multi-Level Street of the Future, 1910

### Eugène Hénard

A five-tiered principal street. The top level is reserved for carriages and automobiles. Just below the deck are public walkways and trams. This level is accessible directly from within adjacent buildings, as is the next lower service level. Linked to the surface by elevators is a public rapid transit deck which surmounts a channel at the lowest level for merchandise delivery and trash removal.

THE ACCESS TREE DIAGRAM

ACCESS TREE DIAGRAM

The circulation of workers at the peak hour between the train door and the office door, a sub-system of the total journey to work, can be compared to a tree. The analogy to the natural tree form derives from visual and morphological similarities among the several elements of each system. The natural tree's roots, trunk, branches, leaves and the fluids moving along these paths are conceptual counterparts for the underground trains and platforms, the stairs, ramps, and elevators, corridors, offices and the people who use them, of the man-made Access Tree.

The "mixing chamber" is designed to permit direct access to elevators and also to serve as the reference point for all change of modes of travel. Cutting through the street membrane and opening the "mixing chamber" to light and air would give the traveller orientation and amenity.

A major office center might have several such trees, each of which would be sized according to the capacity of its serving transit facilities, and to desired physical form. With regard to architectural form, the Access Tree would cluster large buildings tightly around the open space of the "mixing chamber," keeping more distant buildings low for the purpose of minimizing access time and achieving visual contrast.

vertical movement — elevators

horizontal movement — transit

pedestrian mezzanine level

pedestrian second level

This as
CB
bevel

## 15. Metropolis City of 1960
Conceived in 1936

Norman Bel Geddes

The city is seen as a network of high-speed superhighways edged by immense skyscrapers and parks. This vision, derived from Corbusier's proposals of the 1920's, was fulfilled in the 1950's and 1960's in some cities and particularly in the suburbs, where highway intersections attract commercial enterprises. The spread of commercial and office clusters into the countryside away from concentrations of housing has replaced the concept of distance by driving time. The nearly complete polarization of living place from working and shopping places has led to a new non-urban life style which is entirely dependent on the automobile. Geddes' vision, rather than portraying a functioning metropolis city, outlines the motorized suburban highway cluster format that is successfully competing with and destroying many older urban centers. On the other hand it can be persuasively argued that these, and their attached enclosed retail shopping malls, are indeed the new, permanent, and proper centers of urban activity.

## 16. Mall of General Motors Building
New York World's Fair, 1939

Norman Bel Geddes

General Motors commissioned Geddes to prepare its exhibit for the 1939 World's Fair. The Highways and Horizons exhibit he produced was a mammoth scale model which could be toured by spectators in moving chairs. Its theme was "highway progress," and it displayed a conception of "possible superhighways and traffic control methods of the future." Road architecture, with noise and noxious fumes rising to overhanging balconies, as unwittingly recommended in this model, leaves something to be desired. However, the integral handling of the traffic throughways, as a separate system from the principal pedestrian concourse which bridges service roads in all directions, is one of the few positive ways that new urban centers may simultaneously produce an acceptable city life for the individual and accommodate motorized traffic.

10

10

11

10 Cap Martin. 1948. 'Roq et Rob' Housing. This project made at the same time as the 'La Saint Baume' project exemplifies Le Corbusier's revival of the Mediterranean vaulted megaron as a basic living module.

11 Bern. 1962. Siedlung Halen. The 'Roq et Rob' model realized to the designs of Atelier 5 as a low rise high density 'enclave' outside Bern.

12 Portsdown Housing Competition. 1966. Entry by Brawne, Gold, Jones and Simpson. A subtle version of mixed development taking Halen and Bishopsfield as its point of departure.

12

13

13 Harlow. 1960. Mi courtyard' housing for Bish Harlow.

## TEORÍA DE LAS CIUDADES LINEALES

Ejemplo de una ciudad lineal enlazando dos ciudades aglomeradas, ó sea una Ciudad Lineal moderna uniendo dos ciudades puntos antiguas.

2

3

## PERFIL TRANSVERSAL NUEVO DE LA CALLE PRINCIPAL EN LA 2ª Y SUCESIVAS BARRIAS DE LA CIUDAD LINEAL

4

**2** The regional layout of a Ciudad Lineal as connector between two old 'point cities' as Soria termed them.
Source: H. González del Castillo, *Ciudades jardines y ciudades lineales*, Madrid, 1913 p. 19

**3** Bird's-eye view of a Ciudad Lineal, laid out in the later manner with a buffer zone of vegetation along both sides. A boulevard 40 meters wide, tree-lined, and with double car tracks, forms the axis of the community. At 300-meter intervals were to be 20-meter cross streets forming superblocks of 40,000 to 60,000 square meters.
Source: Arturo Soria y Hernández, *The Problem of the Land in Spain*, Madrid 1926 p. 56

limited-access thruway has frustrated these natural settlement patterns; they must now radiate from highway interchanges or line up on an occasional lay-by (as is to be seen on Interstate 95 at New Haven or New London). The ability of the linear plan to readjust itself sensitively and unsentimentally to human needs, despite determined eradicatory efforts, is clearly illustrated here. It is obvious that such settlements, ancient or modern, are often transitional in nature and lose their distinctive linear form when they later have attached to them other, supplementary, usages or when they are converted to different — and perhaps nucleated — purposes.

### The Ciudad Lineal of Madrid

The modern contrived linear plan, however much it may respond to such natural forces, was a conscious invention that is clearly documented as to its occurrence and its intentions. This invention took place in 1882 and was the brainchild of an ingenious Spaniard, Arturo Soria y Mata (1844-1920), whose primary principle was that 'The form of the city is — or must be — derived from the necessities of locomotion.' This first of modern linear plans was one of our

Haven of New London). Det het lineaire plan, ondanks vastbesloten pogingen om het uit te roeien, zinvol gevoelsmatig en rationeel tegemoet kan komen aan menselijke behoeften, is hierdoor wel aangetoond. Het spreekst vanzelf dat dergelijke nederzettingen, zowel oude als nieuwe, dikwijls een overgangskarakter hebben en hun specifieke lineaire vorm verliezen wanneer ze later aanvullende functies aantrekken, of wanneer ze worden omgevormd tot andere (eventueel kern-) plannen.

Three Human Establishments, 1942-43. pattern of regional settlement combining bi-concentric cities, linear-industrial settlements, and farming units.

Corbusier's conception of an overall pattern of linear urban development for Europe. Society is spread over all the surface of the land, from one pole to the other, and including the poles, a world composed of veins, of gigantic forces of production, of gigantic means of circulation and transport.... this is more, for the moment, than a stroke of pencil across the map. It will be incumbent on others, one day, to discover the true line"— Author's translation (Oeuvre complète 1938- ). The letters mark ports or interchanges: Bordeaux, La Rochelle, Nantes, Le Havre, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Königsburg, Moscow, Stettins, Salonika, Trieste.

This project represents a broad conceptual plan for the
development of a Linear City Complex utilizing to
maximum advantage an existing right of way coupled
with the integration of a transportation spine system that
will serve not only the internal communications of
the Linear City itself, but also the circulation through the
development area to points outside.

The concept envisages utilizing Federal, State and City
programs for implementation to satisfy the needed
requirements for community and public facilities with
related private development undertakings to follow.

McMillan Griffis Mileto

EXISTING PHYSICAL FORM

(right)

Grand Central, Rockefeller Center, and Pennsylvania Station merge as distinct clusters in midtown today.

Underlying these existing clusters are elaborate regional and metropolitan movement systems. These special destinations in midtown provide a wide choice of modal interchange.

EXISTING PHYSICAL FORM: MIDTOWN MANHATTAN

photo by Stan Shabronsky

EMPLOYMENT DENSITY

(left)

This model by Ernst Hacker, New York City Planning Commission, portrays job density in the Manhattan Central Business District. The model (60th Street, the northern boundary of the CBD, is at right) clearly shows the twin Wall Street and Midtown peaks and the "industrial valley" between.

CONCEPTUAL DIAGRAM

Reinforcement of the distinctive "highs" of the Midtown and Downtown office centers is shown diagramatically, by the present and future office clusters within these two centers. The Valley in between should remain low, retaining some of its present economic activities, mainly light manufacturing and warehousing, and increasing its housing and institutional use. Housing best fits the transportation situation of the Valley because subways going in both directions have delivered their main load of passengers by the time they arrive there, so residents would have uncrowded trains either to Midtown or to Lower Manhattan. The Fifth Avenue spine of Midtown and the Broadway spine of Lower Manhattan (light blue) are conceptualized as primarily for pedestrian enjoyment, with lower buildings providing shops, restaurants and other services. The waterfronts (light green) would be reclaimed for public recreational use.

HIGHS

major office clusters

secondary office clusters

LOWS

mixed commercial activities
(shops, restaurants, hotels,
theaters, etc.)

public open space

CONCEPTUAL DIAGRAM
MANHATTAN CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT

59

## CONCEPTUAL DIAGRAM

"Lows" should be retained - on Fifth Avenue, which should remain a relatively sunlit shopping street, in the Times Square theater district, and at the southern edge of Central Park. Located around these, related to transit, would be the extensions of established office areas (such as Rockefeller Center and Penn Station) and new office centers. Housing would rise in the four corners, with parks along the rivers.

CONCEPTUAL DIAGRAM: MIDTOWN MANHATTAN

### HIGHS

existing office clusters

future office expansion

major residential clusters
 pogrebasch
 (existing and future)

### LOWS

existing shopping, hotel and entertainment districts

public open space

75

APPLICATION OF THE
ACCESS TREE PRINCIPLE

This section through a theoreti-
cal new office cluster once again
illustrates the integration of hori-
zontal and vertical movement
systems. The special statign
characteristics of trains using
gravity and vacuum forces were
tested in the design, hence the
convex profile of the station.

The strongest control of design
should be exercised at the levels
just below and just above grade
where almost everyone entering
the cluster will move toward his
individual destination or to an-
other mode of transportation.

100

SUBWAY LINKAGE AT
LEXINGTON AVENUE AND
51-53rd STREETS

(right)

The linking of the Lexington IRT subway station at 51st Street and the IND station at 53rd Street with each other and with the elevators in neighboring buildings would add a vital and functional interchange place in the City. Fortunately there is a real opportunity to do this by means of a concourse-level light well on the east side of Lexington Avenue.

There is also a potential technique for implementing this and similar designs. The property needed for the light well is not large enough to permit construction of a typical office building: adjacent sites would have to be assembled for this purpose. But this parcel would be valuable to the owner of the adjacent site because when used as a plaza in conjunction with the adjoining building, it would allow the builder added height under present zoning regulations. Therefore, if the City acquired the parcels needed and built this proposed mezzanine plaza, it could sell it to the developer of the adjacent site, probably with little or no net cost to the City.

The same amount of office space would be built on the block, but the City would determine the design and location of the plaza. This design would serve subway riders and radically change the underground world as well as providing street-level open space.

THE ACCESS TREE AT 51 AND 53 STREETS

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Model, Central Park in foreground.

Left: Plan shows sixteen typical blocks lying between Lenox and Eighth Avenues in the area that the general scheme proposes to preserve and improve without destroying the clarity of the street grid. Possible strategy for local development converts backyards into playgrounds; potentially adequate existing housing is re-habilitated; public buildings acquire the appropriate settings that their social importance might suggest.

Facing page: Perspective shows four such block renovations in the context of the existing city.

Pedestrian circulation

Roads

CENTERS ON LONG ISLAND

The geography of Long Island, the present pattern of development and the existing rail and expressway system suggest the appropriateness of a few large, urban centers down the middle of the Island. Pilgrim State Hospital and Mac Arthur Field are sites which have not been carefully studied by Regional Plan Association but appear to have characteristics appropriate for center development. Major development of the middle of the Island would help keep the water-fronts for open space or sparser development. There might also be a sub-system of several smaller centers on or near Great South Bay and several to the north of the Island's central spine.

Long Island has traditionally placed great reliance on its railroad passenger service. This is likely to continue. The shape of the Island channels much of the traffic into an east-west flow headed to and from Manhattan. But the densely populated areas of Queens and Brooklyn make it difficult to get through by auto and the narrowness of the Island makes it improbable that enough east-west roads can be built to handle the traffic that will develop as the Island's population increases. Thus the railroad's significance will increase as population increases. It will have great effect on the location of centers on Long Island.

Highways
Railroads
Parks and Public Open Space
Watershed Properties Military Reservations
Public Institutions
Cemeteries
Potential Large Parks
Developed Land
Projected Developed Land