This is part of a series of articles exploring the question, who owns the city and what it takes to run it.
When I first came to the US and saw articles in planning magazines that showcased “planned communities” I wondered how communities could possibly not be planned. Soon I learned that the usual development and subdivision plans are not really masterplans and that to follow a "script" for something larger than a single development was usually the exception rather than the rule.
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traditional street in master-planned community like Roland Park, Baltimore
(photo ArchPlan) |
As a direct result of the lack of planning, American real estate, development, planning and design professionals alike now consider “place-making”, community, sprawl control, synergies between various developments, and systems thinking for networks of mobility, recreation or preservation as high priority topics. Citizens who suffer from traffic congestion, lack of parks, trails and open spaces and good access to services, add to the chorus of voices demanding "community" and excellence instead of the way too typical uncoordinated assortment of built stuff.
The question is, can masterplans be of help?
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| Typical Subdivision street (Lexington KY. Photo ArchPlan) |
Masterplans are by no means a recent invention. After all, our nation’s capital famously followed the grand plan of the Frenchman Pierre L’Enfant. Oglethorpe's Savannah, Ga masterplan with its public squares is part of any study book about planning. More recent examples of widely known new places developed from masterplans are Columbia, MD, Reston, Va or Stapleton, Co.
Established cities can benefit from masterplans as well. New York got its Battery Park masterplan and Baltimore one for the Inner Harbor and later, the same architects
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Klaus Philipsen FAIA
Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
Baltimore MD
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