Department of the History of Art and Architecture Spring Term 2008

University of Pittsburgh Mondays 2:30-4:50; Frick room 203

Professor Franklin Toker UHC/HAA1880: CRN 33516

Preliminary syllabus and course information for

WORLD CITIES:

Toward an Analysis and History of Urban Form.

From Frank Toker:

Welcome to "World Cities": this is a preliminary syllabus; no hard information is needed for a while, since we will be laying out the course by doing it, in four assignments. Some basic dates are:

7 January: how to research Oakland

14 January: students reporting on assigned Oakland streets

[21 January]: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day: no class

28 January: students report on Pittsburgh neighborhoods

4, 11 February: lectures on city history

18, 25 Feb: students report individually on American cities

3 March: lecture, and strategizing on world city choices

[10 March]: University not in session: Spring Break; no class.

17, 24 March: lectures on city history

31 March: reports on world cities

7 April: reports on world cities

14 April: reports on world cities

?23 April? reports on world cities

We are around 16 people in the class, an ideal number. This syllabus is only preliminary because we have a lot of decisions to make as a group. Just to start us off, my office is on the balcony of Frick Library (the only doors with a window); please come by to discuss anything Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, or call for an appointment. My telephone is [412.64]8.2419; email ftoker@pitt.edu.

The assignments are:

History of an Oakland street, for 14 January (10% of term grade)

Pittsburgh neighborhoods, for 28 January (20% of term grade)

American cities, for 18 and 25 February (20% of term grade)

World City, reports probably 24 March through 14 or 23 April (50% term grade)

Student members and their Oakland streets are:

Ambrose,Zachary--Halket

Batoff,Alexander--Coltart

Blair, Ramsey--Bates

Brooks,Ian--Blvd of Allies

Fielding,Rebecca--Atwood

Glasder,Rachael--Bouqet

Heater,Michael--Pier Street

Kierzkowski,Cara--Oakland Square

Kruise,Christina--Semple

Mega, Alexander--Craft Avenue

McConnell,Lauren--Cable Place

Moy,Christopher--McKee Place

Mulshine,Mark--Oakland Avenue

Murray,Michael--Dawson

Patton,Courtney--Meyran

Tanner,Charles--Louisa

Turban,Jonathan--Zulema

Zanoni,Heather--Forbes

I'm passing around a sheet to get your telephone numbers and preferred emails: important for the eventual formation of groups.

For the Pittsburgh neighborhood assignment, please pick one of the following (you can do this anytime by email to me, or come see me for consultation):

From The North Side: Old Allegheny; The Mexican War Streets and Allegheny West; Manchester, Perry Hilltop, Observatory Hill, and Fineview; Deutschtown, Spring Hill, and Troy Hill

From The South Side: Old Birmingham and the South Side Slopes; Station Square and Mt. Washington; The Back Slopes of Mt. Washington

From Penn Avenue and the Railroad-based Suburbs: The Strip and Polish Hill; Lawrenceville, Bloomfield, and Garfield; East Liberty, Highland Park, and Morningside; Larimer, Lincoln-Lemington, and Homewood; Point Breeze, Regent Square, Edgewood, and Swissvale; Wilkinsburg and the Eastern Suburbs

From Fifth Avenue and the Trolley-based Suburbs: The Bluff, Uptown, and the Hill; Shadyside; Squirrel Hill and Greenfield

From The Monongahela Valley: Hazelwood and Homestead; Braddock, Turtle Creek, and Wilmerding; McKeesport, Clairton, and Duquesne; The South Hills

From The Ohio Valley: West End & McKees Rocks; Sewickley and Sewickley Heights; Ambridge (Old Economy), Harmony, and Aliquippa

From The Allegheny Valley: Oakmont and New Kensington; Natrona, Creighton, and Springdale; Fox Chapel, Sharpsburg, Etna, Millvale, and Evergreen Hamlet

Cranberry Township

Monroeville

For the report on an American city: here too, you are welcome to email me your selections, but no choice will be definitive until we have met together. Rather than make these "wide-open" reports, I thought they would be most productive if focused on a certain aspect. A few cities have multiple topics:

New York City: the grid

Charleston and the single house

Savannah: organic expansion

Miami: city in a swamp

New Orleans: recipe for disaster

Denver: Mile High or Beaux-Arts city

Chicago: the 1909 Burnham plan

San Francisco: earthquake and its lessons

Boston: route 128

Boston: the Emerald Necklace

Philadelphia: the Penn plan

Philadelphia: Benjamin Franklin Parkway

Baltimore: recipe for renewal

Cleveland: a city rich and poor

St. Louis: a city rich and poor

New towns in Florida and elsewhere

"Edge City" as defined by Joel Garreau's book

Los Angeles: the trolley sacrificed for the car

New Haven: rich Yale in a poor city (New York Times article 6 Jan 08)

Toronto: metropolitan government

Portland OR: America's smart-growth city

"Sprawl city" could use Pittsburgh as example

Preliminary bibliography:

Class text on sale at Book Centre is A.E.J. Morris, History of Urban Form before the Industrial Revolutions (3d ed., but buy 2nd ed if you can find it)

Peter Hall, Cities in civilization: culture, innovation, and urban order (recommended, NOT required). We will have readings from this, too, but not currently in print. Buy it used from Amazon etc. if you wish.

On Pittsburgh: Franklin Toker, Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait.

On recognizing American architectural styles:

Poppeliers, JohnWhat Style is it?

Whiffen, M.American Architecture since 1780: A Guide to the Styles

On American cities:

Reps, John: The Making of Urban America: A History of City Planning in the United States

Tunnard and Reed: American Skyline

On world cities: Gutkind, Erwin: International History of City Development

On particular problems of contemporary cities:

--Garreau, Joel: Edge City: Life on the New Frontier. 1991.

--Bogart, William: Don't Call it Sprawl: Metropolitan Structure in the Twenty-First Century. New York, 2006.

--Bruegmann, Robert: Sprawl: A Compact History. 2005.

--Andres Duany, Elizabeth, and Jeff Speck: Suburban nation: the rise of sprawl and the decline of the American Dream. 2000

Finally, some beginning on-line sources:

wikipedia.org is ok to use in this class! good for Pittsburgh neighborhoods, even some streets

www.google.com, then go to "web" or "images" or "maps"

maps.google.com for maps, also satellite views (with or without labels), and "street views" looking directly at the streets you want.

earth.google.com for most detailed aerial views

www2.county.allegheny.pa.us gives you information on every house in Pittsburgh; the "building information" tab gives approximate age.

digital.library.pitt.edu/maps brings you to excellent old maps of Pittsburgh, starting in 1872

digital.library.pitt.edu also gives census tracks; under "full-text" collection you will find street directories (actual text images, not merely citations) that can tell you who lived where and when (some, at least, give listings both by personal names and by streets). Among the best are:

--Woodward Rowlands' Pittsburgh directory for 1852: containing the names of the inhabitants of Pittsburgh and Allegheny. Pittsburgh, 1852.

--Pittsburgh street directory: as revised ...1916. Pittsburgh, 1916.

--Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1864-1865. Pittsburgh, 1865. At the back, around p. 380, lists all streets in Pittsburgh and Allegheny City (=North Side, today), with their intersections.

--Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1877-1878. Pittsburgh, 1878.

www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/cp/maps gives you current detailed city maps by neighborhood, and another part of the site gives (limited) neighborhood histories.

www.library.cmu.edu/Research/ArchArch is an all-purpose site that leads you quickly to most of the above, and other resources.