Ed Bacon: Planning, Politics, and the Building of Modern Philadelphia - Couverture souple

Heller, Gregory L.

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0812223594 ISBN 13 : 9780812223590

Editeur : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016

Synopsis

In the mid-twentieth century, as Americans abandoned city centers in droves to pursue picket-fenced visions of suburbia, architect and urban planner Edmund Bacon turned his sights on shaping urban America. As director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, Bacon forged new approaches to neighborhood development and elevated Philadelphia's image to the level of great world cities. Urban development came with costs, however, and projects that displaced residents and replaced homes with highways did not go uncriticized, nor was every development that Bacon envisioned brought to fruition. Despite these challenges, Bacon oversaw the planning and implementation of dozens of redesigned urban spaces: the restored colonial neighborhood of Society Hill, the new office development of Penn Center, and the transit-oriented shopping center of Market East. Ed Bacon is the first biography of this charismatic but controversial figure. Gregory L. Heller traces the trajectory of Bacon's two-decade tenure as city planning director, which coincided with a transformational period in American planning history. Edmund Bacon is remembered as a larger-than-life personality, but in Heller's detailed account, his successes owed as much to his savvy negotiation of city politics and the pragmatic particulars of his vision. In the present day, as American cities continue to struggle with shrinkage and economic restructuring, Heller's insightful biography reveals an inspiring portrait of determination and a career-long effort to transform planning ideas into reality.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Gregory L. Heller is Executive Director of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority. His writing on city planning has appeared in Next American City, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Imagining Philadelphia: Edmund Bacon and the Future of the City, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press. Alexander Garvin is President of AGA Public Realm Strategists, Inc., and author of several books, including The American City: What Works, What Doesn't.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Date d'édition: 2016
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0812223594
• ISBN 13: 9780812223590
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 320
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible