Centenary of the birth of Jane Jacobs
04/05/2016.
[Scranton] USA
metalocus, ALVARO LAMAS, LEONOR MARTÍN
metalocus, ALVARO LAMAS, LEONOR MARTÍN
Today marks 100 years since the birth of the activist, theoretical and scientific disseminator of urbanism Jane Jacobs. Her most influential work, Death and Life of big cities (1961) collects her criticism of the policies of urban renewal fifties in the US, whose growth models proposed homogeneous and monofunctional cities, to the detriment of public space and compact and diverse city. A subject that shook society at the time but unfortunately remains in force in the cities of today.
Jane Jacobs en 1961. Fotografía © Phil Stanziola. Imagen cortesía de la Biblioteca del Congreso de los EEUU.
Jane Jacobs en NY. Fotografía © Phil Stanziola. Imagen cortesía de la Biblioteca del Congreso de los EEUU.
Jane Jacobs en Canadá. Fotografía cortesía de Frank Lennon, Toronto Star.
Jane Jacobs en la White Horse Tavern. Fotografía © Cervin Robinson/New York Times.
Map of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, project that Jacobs helped to stop. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress of US.
Collage by Metalocus. Image: Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses. Wikipedia.
Collage by Co.design. Image: Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses. Wikipedia.
Inside pages dedicated to Jane Jacobs in: Robert Moses: The Master Builder of the New York City.
Cover of Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs.
With no specific academic training, Jane Jacobs observed the city from her own experience, and reported her thoughts from a close and flat point view, almost like urban recipes. This could have led to a naive approach to urban thought but it was a revolution in the appreciation of public space in large cities, understood as a meeting and social exchange place.
Does anyone today perhaps suppose than in real life the answers and solutions to the major issues that concern us may come from homogeneous settlements? Jane Jacobs asks in her book Death and Life of Great American Cities.
Besides her literary work, Jacobs stood out for her activism in the organization of social movements that were self-defined as spontaneous and that sought to paralyze urban projects that she understood would destroy local communities.
During the 50's and 60's she began the fight for which she would be best known. She did it in their own neighborhood, Greenwich Village, which would be transformed due to the expansion of the University of New York and the urban renewal plans of Robert Moses. The proposed renovation plan consisted in the construction of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would pass directly through the Washington Square Village dividing Soho, Little Italy and the Lower East Side through an elevated highway.
Jacobs formed the "Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway", recruiting characters as well known as Margaret Mead, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lewis Mumford, Charles Abrams and William H. Whyte. Finally, she managed to block the project and in June 25, 1958, the city closed the Washington Park Square to traffic.
Jacobs continued to struggle every time the project came to the surface in the years 1962, 1965 and 1968, becoming a local hero. On April 10, 1968 Jacobs was arrested for inciting a riot, for crimes against property and obstruction of public administration, finally her charges were reduced to disorderly conduct.
Shortly after being arrested, she moved to Toronto, where she lived the rest of his life. In Canada she conducted a series of fights among which it stands out her help to stop the Spadina Expressway project. She was considered the "Mother of Vancouverism" because of her influence on urban planning in the city of Vancouver, which uses her "density done well" philosophy.
As her book Death and Life of Great American Cities ends:
During the 50's and 60's she began the fight for which she would be best known. She did it in their own neighborhood, Greenwich Village, which would be transformed due to the expansion of the University of New York and the urban renewal plans of Robert Moses. The proposed renovation plan consisted in the construction of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would pass directly through the Washington Square Village dividing Soho, Little Italy and the Lower East Side through an elevated highway.
Jacobs formed the "Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway", recruiting characters as well known as Margaret Mead, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lewis Mumford, Charles Abrams and William H. Whyte. Finally, she managed to block the project and in June 25, 1958, the city closed the Washington Park Square to traffic.
Jacobs continued to struggle every time the project came to the surface in the years 1962, 1965 and 1968, becoming a local hero. On April 10, 1968 Jacobs was arrested for inciting a riot, for crimes against property and obstruction of public administration, finally her charges were reduced to disorderly conduct.
Shortly after being arrested, she moved to Toronto, where she lived the rest of his life. In Canada she conducted a series of fights among which it stands out her help to stop the Spadina Expressway project. She was considered the "Mother of Vancouverism" because of her influence on urban planning in the city of Vancouver, which uses her "density done well" philosophy.
As her book Death and Life of Great American Cities ends:
It is true that the inert and without-force cities often contain the seeds of their own destruction and little else. But instead, the cities of intense, lively and diverse life contain the seeds of their own regeneration and have enough energy to take on others' problems and needs.
More information
Jane Butzner. JACOBS
Jane Butzner Jacobs (Scranton, Pennsylvania, May 4, 1916 - Toronto, April 25, 2006) was a scientific disseminator, theoretical urbanism and Canadian socio-political activist, born in the United States.
Her most influential work was The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), which harshly criticizes the practices of urban renewal in the 1950s in the United States, whose planners assumed ideal schematic models which she led to the destruction of space public. Using innovative and interdisciplinary scientific methods (from both social sciences and natural sciences), the author identified the causes of violence in everyday urban life, as it were subject to abandonment or, conversely, good food, safety and quality of life.
Her ideas about the spontaneous self-organization of urbanism were applied in the later concept of emergent systems.
In addition to his literary work, Jacobs noted for her activism in organizing self-defined as spontaneous social movements (grassroots), aimed at paralyzing the urban projects she understood that destroyed local communities. First in the US, where she won the cancellation of Lower Manhattan Expressway; and later in Canada, where she emigrated in 1968 and where she got the Spadina Expressway cancellation and the motorway network that sought to build.
Her most influential work was The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), which harshly criticizes the practices of urban renewal in the 1950s in the United States, whose planners assumed ideal schematic models which she led to the destruction of space public. Using innovative and interdisciplinary scientific methods (from both social sciences and natural sciences), the author identified the causes of violence in everyday urban life, as it were subject to abandonment or, conversely, good food, safety and quality of life.
Her ideas about the spontaneous self-organization of urbanism were applied in the later concept of emergent systems.
In addition to his literary work, Jacobs noted for her activism in organizing self-defined as spontaneous social movements (grassroots), aimed at paralyzing the urban projects she understood that destroyed local communities. First in the US, where she won the cancellation of Lower Manhattan Expressway; and later in Canada, where she emigrated in 1968 and where she got the Spadina Expressway cancellation and the motorway network that sought to build.
