Friday, November 9, 2007

Great City Planning Documentaries

The City, Parts I, II (1939)
A documentary which pleas for less development in the inner city while promoting what we call today, urban sprawl.
http://www.archive.org/details/CityTheP1939
http://www.archive.org/details/CityTheP1939_2

A Place to Live (1948)
This documentary was about slum clearance in Philadelphia. For any who has lived in Philadelphia, you will get a kick out of the new upscale housing project known as "The Richard Allen Housing Projects." These projects were some of the worse projects in the country. They were eventually torn down in 1999.
http://www.archive.org/details/PlacetoL1948_2

The Dynamic American City (1956)
A 1950's documentary which is advocating the removal of blighted neighborhoods through Urban Renewal.
http://www.archive.org/details/DynamicA1956_2

Community Growth & Crisis (1959)
Every Planner should watch this film. This is a documentary about homebuilders decrying unplanned urban sprawl. Their solution? Planned Unit Developments, Cluster Zoning, Flexible zoning controls and Pro Land Use laws... if only we had listened
http://www.archive.org/details/Communit1959

Detroit: City on the Move (1965)
And after the King riots in 1968, the city residents were on the move to the suburbs. Such high hopes for the city in the mid 1960's. Has there been a major American city that has fallen harder than Detroit?
http://www.archive.org/details/DetroitC1965

1 comment:

Carls said...

This archive.org website is pretty interesting. The amount and type of information that is kept. I never new about it before so thanks.