City Limits Frederick Steiner

Volume 24 Article 5

1-1-2002 City Limits Frederick Steiner

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Frederick Steiner

his service in the French army during What can the plans for Austin, Texas the First World War. While teaching put forth by these two Philadelphia- and directing the architecture atelier based immigrants teach us about the at Penn, Cret maintained a robust nature of city making? We will look practice in Philadelphia designing at each plan in some detail, and then such buildings as the Pan American reflect on their larger significance for Union in Washington, D.C. (1907–1917), the present state of the city. the Indianapolis Public Library (1917), and the Detroit Institute of the Arts The Eyes of Texas (1920–1927).2 Texans aim high, and, early on, they set their sights on a great state university. The second plan was prepared by Bolstered with oil revenue from state Ian L. McHarg (1920–2001) in 1976 trust lands, a permanent university for the Lake Austin area. McHarg endowment fueled the construction of was the most prominent planner a physical plant worthy of these aspira- and landscape architect in the world tions. Paul Cret’s plan and subsequent during the 1970s. After apprenticing buildings for the Texas campus were as a landscape architect in his native preceded by the noteworthy work of I inhabit a city that is reluctantly the University of Texas campus in 1933. Scotland, he served in the British others, including that of the inven- urban. My workplace and homeplace Cret was one of the most prominent commandos during the Second World tive architect Cass Gilbert. But it was lie within the Austin city limits. Deep architects in the United States from War. Afterwards, McHarg studied with Cret that the university found an in the heart of Texas, Austin simultane- the first decade of the twentieth cen- landscape architecture and city plan- architect who matched its confident ously stands as the state capital and tury through the 1930s. During the ning at Harvard University, a school enterprise. as a state-of-mind. The city epitomizes latter half of the twentieth century, his then dominated by Walter Gropius Texan-ness while providing a contrast reputation plummeted with the rise of and the Bauhaus.3 The Texas Board of Regents retained and a foil for the rest of the state. the International Style. The modern- Cret as consulting architect in March ists opposed the Beaux-Arts tradition In 1954, McHarg went to the University 1930, a post he retained until his death Cities evolve through the cumulative and Paul Cret bore the standard for of Pennsylvania, where he taught until fifteen years later. In addition to his impacts of many plans and designs the French school in America. his death in 2001. While teaching, 1933 comprehensive development as well as numerous unplanned and writing, and chairing the landscape plan, Cret participated in the design undesigned activities. Unintended Paul Cret first entered the Ècole des architecture and regional planning of nineteen campus buildings as well consequences flow from both designed Beaux-Arts in his home city Lyon, department at Penn, McHarg (like Cret) as many terraces, retaining walls, and and unplanned actions. My neigh- France. In 1896, he won the Paris Prize, maintained a vigorous, Philadelphia- inner-campus roads.4 borhood and my campus resulted in enabling him to study at the most based practice. His firm, Wallace, part because of two plans. The plans important architectural school in the McHarg, Roberts and Todd (WMRT), Cret’s “Report Accompanying the affecting my office and my home were world then: the Ècole des Beaux-Arts was responsible for many plans including General Plan of Development” con- completed several years apart. in Paris. He came to the United States those for the Twin Cities Metropolitan tains careful analyses of the exist- in 1903 to teach at the University of Region of Minnesota (1969), the Denver ing buildings, previous plans (most The first of the two plans was prepared Pennsylvania.1 He stayed in Philadel- metropolitan region (1971– 1972), and notably those by Gilbert), and the site.5 20 by Paul Philippe Cret (1876–1945) for phia until his death in 1945, except for The Woodlands, Texas (1973–1974). The plan also presents a clear vision Paul Phillippe Cret Drawings. The Alexander Architectural Archive, The General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin.

for the future. His scheme respects Beyond the historicist facades, Beaux- ing those groups about axes. Elasticity open space, the east–west orientation precedent and context while charting Arts architects like Cret gave careful was achieved by ‘organic extensions’ of of the central campus, sun angle and a bold, new course for action. Cret’s attention to the relationships among existing and projected buildings and weather conditions, breezes, and topog- work is deeply rooted in Beaux-Arts buildings. They organized these rela- by the creation of secondary courts raphy contribute to the arrangement design principles. tionships to build physical commu- around the primary one at the center of buildings and circulation systems. nities. Although (to my knowledge) of the campus. The whole composition Traffic flow between the university Carol McMichael characterizes Beaux- they never used the word explicitly, was guided by goals of ‘interrelation, and the city of Austin is an important, Arts buildings as “axially and sym- this approach is “ecological”—that balance, and symmetry.’ Interrelation recognized challenge. Because the metrically disposed particulate plans is, concerned about the relationship was directed toward realizing elastic- Jeffersonian north–south, east–west …[with]… historicist elevations derived between organisms (in this case “aca- ity; balance and symmetry, toward grid of the campus is shifted from from a careful study of the architec- demic organisms”) with each other formality.”9 the original southwest to north–east tural monuments of antiquity and and with their environments. grid of the city, the tenuousness of the the Renaissance.”6 Furthermore, she Cret viewed the plan as flexible and connections is exacerbated. describes the oppositions between Cret’s plan consisted of large, carefully adaptable, writing, “a general plan Cret’s “traditional Beaux-Arts” and rendered watercolor plan and perspec- prepared today will have to be modified Cret envisioned the stream, Waller “modern purist concepts” as: “(a) tive drawings as well as a written from time to time, to take account of Creek, running along the east side of symmetrical, compartmentalized report. His scheme sought to achieve changing conditions.”10 He recognized the campus as an important oppor- plans vs. asymmetrical, open plans, (b) an “elastic formal plan” derived from “to make an elastic formal plan is by tunity to link the campus to the city. mass-dominant buildings vs. volume- the writings about architecture as a no means an easy matter.”11 “This element of the campus,” he dominant buildings, (c) particulate “civic art” by Werner Hegemann and wrote about the Waller Creek cor- masses vs. unified masses; and (d) Elbert Peets.8 According to McMichael, The plan plays careful attention to site ridor, “can be developed into a most ornamented surfaces vs. unornamented “Formality was achieved by grouping conditions and the relationship of the attractive feature, without entailing surfaces.”7 buildings around courts and arrang- campus to the City of Austin. Vistas, large expenditures.”12 21 One of the most noteworthy aspects of Cret’s plan is its acknowledgment that change is inevitable. He presented careful provisions for growth. In particular, Cret recognized sports would be an important driver of campus change. He observed, “the future of intercol- legiate athletics, and especially of the exhibition games requiring very large accommodations for the public, is a subject of great controversy.”13

Design with Nature Plans to expand the football stadium in 1970 generated “great controversy” indeed. The expansion plans encroached on the Waller Creek corridor. Student activists, including many from the university’s School of Architecture, chained themselves to trees and bulldozers and the Austin environmental movement was born. As the city expanded in the early 1970s, its leaders initiated the “Austin Tomor- row” planning process. A centerpiece of that process became Ian McHarg’s Lake Austin Growth Management Plan.14

In 1974, the Austin city council authorized the preparation of a plan for the ninety-two-square-mile area encompassing Lake Austin and the watersheds of its tributaries. Located to the west of the then-limits of the city, the planning area covered an oak-dominated undulating terrain 22 Paul Phillippe Cret Drawings. The Alexander Architectural Archive, The General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin. situated over the Edwards Aquifer. Barton Springs, Austin, Texas. Photos by Frederick Steiner.

The area was clearly fated for new particular attention to the suitabilities guidelines for the development zone later buildings clearly exhibited the growth but also possessed significant for future growth, conservation and in one region (for example, the Lake influences of the CIAM movement. environmental amenities. Accord- development principles, and suggested Austin Corridor Region) differed from Ian McHarg entered Harvard with ing to McHarg and his colleagues, public policies to manage growth. the other three physiographic regions academic modernism in full bloom. how and where growth “occurs will Water quality received considerable (e.g., the Lower Terrace Region, the He retained a modernist belief in the have a profound effect upon life and attention in the WMRT plan, especially Hill Region, and the Terrace Region). wisdom of science as a basis to guide property and the Area’s irreplaceable as it related to the sensitivity of the Six elements then directed the main- decision-making until his death. Still, natural resources. The consequences vast Edwards Aquifer. tenance of the information database he shared his mentor Lewis Mumford’s of unplanned and uncontrolled growth for the planning area as well as public skepticism about the International Style. will be felt not only by those persons McHarg’s premise was that by studying policies for future land use, open space, Cret continued to use the Beaux-Arts living in the Lake Austin Area, but the natural environment, one could water supply, sewage collection and method to design while dabbling with by a much larger population resid- identify certain opportunities for treatment, and highway construction modern visual motifs, such as spare ing in the City of Austin and Travis development as well as constraints. and improvements. surfaces. McHarg grounded his method County who will bear the costs of The constraints could limit some land in modern processes while abandon- degraded environments and those uses while restricting others. This The plan had varying and continuing ing the notion that a single style was actions required to deal with such range of development opportunities influence in the Austin metropolitan appropriate across the globe. conditions.”15 and constraints corresponded to three region. Parts of the area covered by the proposed zones for the planning area: plan incorporated as separate juris- Louis Kahn connected Cret with McHarg. Whereas Cret’s plan for the campus conservation, limited development, dictions (called West Lake Hills and Kahn was Cret’s most famous student may be interpreted as an implicitly and development. The rules for each Rollingwood). These towns pursued and he worked in Cret’s firm. Kahn was applied human ecology, McHarg and zone were “based upon a philosophy several development and conservation McHarg’s colleague, collaborator, and his compatriots applied ecology to their that land use and development con- standards and suburban neighborhoods friend. Although Kahn marinated in management plan explicitly. Whereas trols should be as few in number and reflect many of McHarg’s proposals. In modernism after Cret’s death, Kahn Cret proposed an “elastic formal plan” as uncomplicated as possible so that other places, his ideas were pursued does not fit neatly in the modern camp. with “organic extensions,” McHarg they may be effectively administered less vigorously. Throughout the Austin advocated more of an “elastic organic by a public agency and understood by metropolitan region, the plan is still Cret worked with the University of plan” with “formal extensions.” Cret’s the private sector.”16 Like Cret, WMRT used as a basis for ongoing discussions Texas campus for a decade and a half. extensions were primarily buildings advocated elasticity, a flexibility guided and debates about environmental While McHarg was directly involved and green spaces; McHarg’s were by clear principles. planning, growth management, and in Austin for two years, two of his infrastructure and green spaces. smart growth policies. students (Austan Librach and Pliny McHarg contended that “natural re- Fisk) have been involved with design The Lake Austin plan consisted of a gions” could be translated into “plan- The Bookends of and planning initiatives in Austin for careful analysis of development trends, ning regions.” As a result, he defined American Modernism almost thirty years. Kahn influenced the determination of facilities and four physiographic regions for the Lake Paul Cret was a Beaux-Arts architect. a generation of architects, including services necessary to accommodate Austin area, tailoring the three zones Nevertheless, he was a modern, liter- many who continue to teach and that development, a detailed inven- (conservation, limited development, ate man with broad, international practice in Austin. What influence tory of the natural environment with and development) for each. That is, the experiences and connections. His do the ideas, designs, and plans of 23 Cret, McHarg, and Kahn exert on the study, although of great importance cities. An interstate highway divides with potholes. Giant billboards and nature of the city? to the City of Austin. As this problem the African-American and Latino utility lines loom above and business is of interest to the state, the City, and populations from the whites. These signs blaze in competition for the A lot, but too little. the University, it is to be hoped that it divisions reflect economic and ethnic senses. Large, vacant lots dot the city will be placed some day in competent segregation. Blacks and Hispanics center, while suburbanity sprawls out Between the poetic core of the campus hands.”17 are further separated spatially from at the periphery. and the woody hills around Lake Austin each other. lies a bumpy mess of a city. In his plan Some almost seventy years later, one Still, each day, I leave my office in a for the campus, Cret pinpointed the still hopes. The city lacks affordable housing and building designed by Paul Cret on ugliness near the state’s capitol as a traffic clogs highways and streets. the campus he planned. On my way significant urban design issue. He Even though Austin regularly ranks Neighborhoods are under siege by home, I pass a sign welcoming me to wrote: “The whole problem of the high on “most livable” city polls, its transportation engineers who want the “Edwards Aquifer Environmentally capitol grounds and its approach has urban fabric generally reveals many to expand highways. Cars and trucks Sensitive Area.” My limestone house never been the object of an adequate of the woes facing other American bump along city streets pockmarked just inside the Austin city limits was

24 From Lake Austin Growth Management Plan. Wallace, McHarg, Roberts & Todd. built among the live oaks in 1980, Notes University of Texas, January 1933). plan and William Roberts was the partner- four years after the Wallace, McHarg, 1. Carol McMichael, Paul Cret at Texas (Austin: 6. McMichael, Paul Cret at Texas. in-charge, it is still identified locally as “the 7. Ibid., p. 43. McHarg Plan.” Local leaders report the firm Roberts and Todd plan for this area. University of Texas at Austin, 1983). 2. Ibid. See, also, “Paul Philippe Cret” in Ann 8. Werner Hegemann and Elbert Peets. The was retained because of McHarg and the plan Each evening, an opossum visits our L. Strong and George E. Thomas, eds. American Vitruvius: An Architect’s Handbook reflects the principles put forth in his Design backyard. As I jog in the morning The Book of the School: 100 Years(Philadelphia: of Civic Art (New York: Architectural Book with Nature (Garden City, New York: Natural along a stream that is connected to a Graduate School of Fine Arts, Publishing Co., 1922). History Press, 1969). 9. McMichael, Paul Cret at Texas, p. 84. 15. WMRT, Lake Austin Growth Management larger greenway system, I often spot University of Pennsylvania, 1990), p. 72. 3. Ian McHarg, A Quest for Life: An Autobiography 10. Cret, “Report,” p. 3. Plan, p. 2. fox and deer. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1996). See, 11. Ibid., p. 4. 16. Ibid., p. 49. also, Ian L. McHarg and Frederick R. Steiner, 12. Ibid., p. 32. 17. Cret, “Report,” p. 14. We—my colleagues at the university, eds. To Heal the Earth (Washington, D.C.: 13. Ibid., p. 17. 14. Wallace, McHarg, Roberts and Todd. Lake the fauna at home—live in Cret’s legacy, Island Press, 1998). 4. McMichael, Paul Cret at Texas. Austin Growth Management Plan (Austin: City in McHarg’s legacy. All people should 5. Paul P. Cret. “Report Accompanying the of Austin, July 1976). Although several members be as fortunate. General Plan of Development” (Austin: of WMRT were involved in the

From Lake Austin Growth Management Plan. Wallace, McHarg, Roberts & Todd. 25