Learning from New York City
Integral to the MUD Program is the in-depth exploration of New York City, as part of the seminar, UD 712, Methodologies of Urban Design.
Leading the seminar is Roy Strickland, Director of the Master of Urban Design Program. Strickland is a native New Yorker who has practiced and taught design in the city for decades. Because New York is the United States' most important laboratory of urban design, its study is critical to urban designers, and an important complement to the MUD Program's design investigations of cities such as Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles. For three days during winter term, the seminar relocates to New York with walks through downtown and midtown Manhattan, exploration of outer-borough neighborhoods, and meetings with urban design practitioners. The seminar and tour make major urban design movements real—from 19th-century building covenants to 21st-century special zoning districts. And for American and international students alike, seminar and tour serve as memorable introductions to American urban culture.
UD 723: METHODOLOGIES OF URBAN DESIGN
Seminar required of M.U.D. candidates, open to M.U.P.
and M.Arch. candidates
This seminar provides a review of urban design methodologies, from the 19th century through the present, by focusing on one of the world's great laboratories of city design, New York, and by relating that city's experience to that of other major cities around the world.
New York's urban design tradition runs deep: from the unselfconscious intersection of building and tradition at the city's founding as Nieuw Amsterdam to the present day's explicit zoning ordinances. Between then and now, virtually every contemporary experiment in American and European urban design would become visible on the city's streets, including private covenants and design guidelines, increasingly rigorous building codes, the Garden City, the City Beautiful, variations on ville radieuse, and incentive zoning. The seminar will cover this rich history through presentations by the instructor, review of bibliographical material, and a weekend visit to New York City.
New York's urban design will be compared with that of other cities through the research of seminar participants, who will be asked to analyze cities and urban projects for the significant influences on their design. Examples will not be limited to America or Europe and may be drawn worldwide, depending on their relevance to urban design and the availability of research materials. This research will result in a seminar presentation and term paper by each participant.
Seminar organization and requirements
The seminar will meet once per week. After a series of presentations about New York City given by the instructor, each participant will present research on the urban design of a city or project that is selected in discussion with the instructor. (The city or project may be located anywhere in the world but must 1] display methods of urban design and 2] offer enough research materials to develop a term paper.)
Each seminar participant is expected to:
- Lead a discussion of a bibliographical reference
(10% of grade) - Give an illustrated presentation of research on her/his selected city or project. (30% of grade)
- Write a 20pp term paper based on the research.
(40% of grade) - Participate in all seminar discussions. (20% of grade)
Bibliography
Blackmar, Elizabeth. The Park and the People. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992.
Bressi, Todd, ed. Planning and Zoning New York City. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1993.
Burrows, Edwin and Mike Wallace. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Caro, Robert. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. New York: Knopf, 1984.
Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
Plunz, Richard. A History of Housing in New York City. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.
Stern, Robert A.M. and Thomas Mellins and David Fishman. New York 1880. New York: The Monacelli Press, 1999.
Stern, Robert A.M. and Gregory Gilmartin and John Massengale. New York 1900. New York: Rizzoli International Publishers, 1983.
Stern, Robert A.M. and Gregory Gilmartin and Thomas Mellins. New York 1930. New York: Rizzoli International Publishers, 1987.
Stern, Robert A.M. and Thomas Mellins and David Fishman. New York 1960. New York: The Monacelli Press, 1995.