Landscape and 47 (2000) 115±128

Regional design: Recovering a great and urban planning tradition

Michael Neuman*

College of Architecture, Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, College Station, TX 77843-3137, USA

Abstract

We are witnessing a rebirth of physical design, both in practice and the academy, spurred on by neo-traditional community planning and neo-urbanism. This article attributes the sources of contemporary regional design to this renaissance. It also traces its origins to classic regional planning, which has been a professional activity for over a century. Regional design shapes the physical form of regions. It takes a regional perspective in guiding the arrangement of human settlements in communities. It is a strategy to accommodate growth by providing a physical framework to determine or guide the most bene®cial location, function, scale, and inter-relationships of communities within a region. This strategic function of regional design distinguishes it from urban and regional planning, apart from its focus on physical form. Communities, the links among them, and their environs are the three key physical components of regions that are the objects of regional design. Regional design strives to connect these communities by transport, communication, and other links into regional networks. Keeping the fringes or environs of the communities relatively sparsely settled is another aim. The article presents historic and contemporary examples of regional design in the US and Europe, and outlines principles for regional design. # 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Regional; Design; Planning

1. Introduction of the past century through World War II. Thereafter came an extended period in which both landscape Once and again, regional design is at the forefront in architecture and city planning were practiced at either large-scale landscape architecture and urban planning. such a small scale Ð garden and site design Ð or with Regional design is among a select set of ideas and such a policy and zoning orientation that traditional practices, along with sustainability, consensus-build- physical planning and were essentially ing, and the so-called `new' urbanism, that are leading lost. the way to a new conception of professional practice. We are witnessing a rebirth of physical design, both What regional design has come to be, and what import in practice and the academy, spurred on by neo-tradi- it has, comprise the subjects of this article. tional community planning and neo-urbanism. Neo- I say `once and again' for two reasons. First, traditionalism and neo-urbanism began as enterprises regional design was regional planning, from the turn that used small communities and neighborhoods as their typical scale. Lately, this scale has grown to * E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Neuman) include large towns. They are now being built in the

0169-2046/00/$20.00 # 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0169-2046(99)00079-1 116 M. Neuman / Landscape and Urban Planning 47 (2000) 115±128 exurbs and inner city areas, in addition to the suburban physical form of the region, and the interaction of locales that were the sites, by and large, of their nature, understood as rural, non-urban environments; genesis. Nonetheless, the scale remains at the indivi- with cities, understood as a cultural manifestation dual community level. An exception is the book The much different from nature. Kropotkin discussed this Next American Metropolis (Calthorpe, 1993). at length in his masterpiece Fields, Factories and When we couple the small-scale acts of new com- Workshops, as did Ebenezer Howard in To-morrow: munity formation with a regional context and the A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, and in powerful external forces that shape urban growth, Cities in Evolution (Geddes, 1915; Howard, 1898; we begin to see the imperative for regional design. Kropotkin, 1913). The emergence of metropolitan economies as domi- nant nodes in a global economy that is increasingly based on services is one leading indicator of the 2. The sources of regional design today context and forces (Castells, 1996, 1989; Hall, 1998; Jacobs, 1984; Markusen, 1987; Saxenian, We can trace the sources of contemporary regional 1994). Metropolitan economies are enabled by the design to two related trends. One is a long-standing high-tech digital revolution in computers, telecommu- critique of . The other is the basic nications and information systems that network a response opened up by this critique, the renewal of region as never before. Add to this an explosion in physical planning at the neighborhood and community mobility, both national and international in terms of levels. When early social critiques of sprawl, such as migration, global business, and tourism, and intra- William Whyte's article Urban Sprawl, John Che- regional in terms of increased vehicle ownership and ever's novel Bullet Park, and even Joni Mitchell's usage, and we see that conditions now are not the same song Big Yellow Taxi and 's song Little that gave rise to the limited social critique that Boxes raised public consciousness to the extent that spawned neo-traditionalism nearly two decades ago. politicians were motivated to act (Cheever, 1969; Regional design has resurfaced by necessity to cope Mitchell, 1970; Whyte, 1958). The earliest profes- with these new realities. sional response, in the sixties and seventies, was Regional design shapes the physical form of growth management. While growth management did regions. It takes a regional perspective in guiding attempt to guide the location, form, and timing of the arrangement of human settlements, preferably in growth, it did so using various legal mechanisms, such communities. Regional design strives to connect these as performance zoning, tier systems, impact and communities by transport, communication, and other development fees, concurrency environmental regula- links into regional networks. Keeping the fringes or tions, transferable development rights, land-banking, environs of the communities relatively sparsely settled and so on. Growth management through the eighties is another aim. Communities, the links among them, did not rely on design as a tool. Exceptions, of course, and their environs are the three key physical compo- occurred in the names of Ian McHarg and Ed Bacon, nents of regions that are the objects of regional design. though they did not explicitly espouse growth man- The regional design of today is a far cry from the agement. McHarg's book, Design with Nature, caused earliest conceptions of Patrick Geddes and Ebenezer an international sensation and revolutionized the way Howard, Frederick Law Olmsted and Peter Kropotkin. landscape architecture and regional planning were These founding fathers based their analyses on the taught. His approach used a design method that inte- conditions of their day, quite different from today. grated, on a regional scale, environmental and other Times were simpler, cities smaller, technology less principal factors as determinants of where and how pervasive and complex, and the lines between urban much development the land was able to support. The and rural were sharply de®ned. Their insights and method identi®ed the capacities of natural systems to theories were informed by the then-emergent disci- absorb the impacts of human activities (McHarg, plines of sociology and geography, and they translated 1969). Ed Bacon, whose career as Planning Director their understanding into physical form and design. for the City of Philadelphia spanned four decades, and Thus, they focused their considerable energies on the whose plan for the City of Brotherly Love got him M. Neuman / Landscape and Urban Planning 47 (2000) 115±128 117 on the cover of Time magazine, is perhaps best of rural lands and sensitive natural environments; the known for his book The Design of Cities. This book support of agriculture, ranching, and other rural eco- describes how to direct and redirect growth within nomic activities; and the redevelopment and revitali- cities. This distinguished it from the mainstream of zation of cities and other communities. growth management, which had rural and suburban In a sense, regional design is an antidote to the post- foci (Bacon, 1967; Philadelphia City Planning Com- World War II sprawl pattern of development. The mission, 1960). cumulative impacts of sprawl have had profound Another exception was Kevin Lynch, whose life- and pervasive effects on our communities and our long work dealt with the design and form of cities. His lives. Practitioners and politicians alike believe that major book about the regional scale was Managing the these far-reaching impacts can be better managed Sense of a Region (Lynch, 1976). Yet Lynch did not using regional design. Regional co-operation in guid- focus on regional design, and only used the term once, ing the ongoing development and redevelopment of in passing and without further explication, in all his communities of place is the thrust. Effective regional voluminous writings (Lynch, 1974). design is seen to afford bene®ts: McHarg, Lynch, and Bacon inspired contemporary  More sensitive consideration of existing resources regional design. Each, in his own way, practised a and historic settlement patterns form of it in his professional work. Yet none had the  More equitable distribution of the benefits and complete, synthetic, comprehensive planning and costs of growth, both geographically and demogra- design approach laid out by the founding fathers of phically regional planning Ð Olmsted, Geddes, Kropotkin,  More full-service communities with a better geo- and Howard Ð a century ago (Hall, 1988). In between graphic balance of jobs and housing, in which the two groups were signi®cant examples of regional people can live, work, play, and feel a strong sense design in practice, notably the New York Regional of belonging Plan Association's (NYRPA) ten volume 1929±1930  Lower taxes, through the more efficient provision Plan for New York and Environs and Patrick Aber- of public facilities and services, and lower social crombie's, 1944 Greater London Plan. Continental service and environmental protection costs cases followed, including the `Finger Plan' for Copen- hagen and The Randstad (Ring City) Plan for urban Regional design is the arrangement of human set- Holland. Another compelling episode of regional tlements in harmony with the regional landscape. It design was the counter-plan to the 1929 NYRPA plan, considers the way a system of places Ð cities, towns, produced by a group of New York and New Jersey and villages Ð is connected via infrastructure Ð architects, planners, and intellectuals led by Lewis roads, transit, utilities, and communications pathways Mumford, and organized under the name of the Ð and cushioned from each other by large landscapes Regional Plan Association of America. For an that allow the settlements to `breathe' Ð river corri- account, see Sussman's Planning the Fourth Migra- dors, farmlands, parks, marshes, and other open tion: The Neglected Vision of the Regional Planning spaces. Association of America (Sussman, 1976). This triad of central places, infrastructure linkages, and open spaces or environs provides the conceptual bulwark that shores up regional design. Regional 3. Regional design in outline design is the intentional act of shaping the physical form of human settlement patterns in geographic As an act of foresight and planning, regional design regions. It is a strategy to accommodate growth by organizes growth, development and redevelopment in providing a physical framework to determine or guide and around existing and planned central places. There the most bene®cial location, function, scale, and inter- are several broad goals that can be attained using good relationships of communities within a region. regional design: the ef®cient provision of basic public Regional design is a strategy that sets the course for and commercial services (infrastructure and utilities, action that determines smaller scale decisions. Regio- goods movement and communications); the protection nal design is to community development and neo- 118 M. Neuman / Landscape and Urban Planning 47 (2000) 115±128 urbanism as urban design is to architecture. Just as all Region types also exert their particular in¯uences on architects should be ¯uent in urban design, all urban the inter-relationships of communities in a region, as designers and new urbanists should be ¯uent with well as the linkages that connect them and the environs regional design. that buffer them. This strategic function of regional design distin- guishes it from urban and regional planning, apart from its focus on physical form. Regional design is a 5. Types of regions potent combination that can portray a vital vision of what a region can look like, and how to achieve it. The distribution of people in a region, represented Settlement and community development are local, by their homes and workplaces, is characterized by the and not regional in nature. People choose to live and settlement pattern. Three types of regional settlement work in places largely due to local characteristics. patterns are: metropolitan; corridor; and rural. Listed Nonetheless, all communities exist within a region and below are general descriptions of these three types, are in¯uenced by it. Climate, topography, geography, several hybrids among them, and a new form that culture, and even economic patterns are, nowadays, some call a mega-city region. regional phenomena. Whether an individual, in the course of choosing where and how to live, or a 5.1. A region is a network of components planning and design professional, in the course of shaping places to live; both intuitively and intention- Whether metropolitan, corridor, or rural, a region is ally factor in regional features in their decision-mak- a network of central-place communities which are ing. Thus, the following sections consider the regional connected by transport and communication linkages aspects of regional design. and surrounded by less intensely settled land. The three key physical components of regions are central places, linkages, and environs. Central places are 4. What is a region? communities of place that serve an outlying region. Linkages which connect communities may be trans- A region may be de®ned in many ways. From a land port links, communications channels, utilities, and planning perspective, it is a contiguous territory that infrastructure. Environs are the lands outside of cen- its inhabitants relate to through their activities. It is an tral places. The intentional arrangement of these three area where one lives and carries out most recurring physical components forms the foundation for regio- activities (Friedmann and Weaver, 1979). nal design. There are many types of regions. The differences in type depend on the activities that occur in them. Land 5.2. Metropolitan regions planners work with housing regions, labor-market regions, commuting regions, watershed regions, air Metropolitan areas are densely populated. Their quality regions, natural regions (ecosystems), geolo- buildings, roads, and spaces are bound together in a gic regions, and retail market regions, among others. tightly woven `urban fabric'. They exhibit a greater Outside of planning, there are various economic, diversity than corridor and rural regions. Metro areas political, and geographic regions. The geographic possess a greater variety of jobs, housing options, extent of the activity(ies) and physical characteris- educational and cultural opportunities, and a broader tic(s), that de®ne the region, determine its area. mix of people than other regions. Their economies are In de®ning regions suitably for planning purposes, strongly linked to national and international econo- one must consider the object of planning. While mies. The focal point of a metropolitan area, in terms communities are often the objects of planning, it is of concentration of activities, is usually one or more important to look at the region as well. As commu- large, central cities. However, the importance that nities exist within a region, their form and character central cities possess has been weakening. In some are in¯uenced by their region. Different types of cases there may be more than one downtown within a regions affect their communities in different ways. metro area (Fig. 1). M. Neuman / Landscape and Urban Planning 47 (2000) 115±128 119

Fig. 1. Metropolitan region.

Another important characteristic of metropolitan rural lands along the way. The focal point of this type regions is the relationship of their suburbs to their of region is not a point at all. Rather, it is the central cities. Historically, close-in suburbs served as transportation corridor that is the focal axis, or spine, the bedrooms to their urban workplaces. More of the region. A corridor region is anchored at either recently, suburbs have been oriented outward, toward end by a city, or in the case of a short and small-scale other suburbs, or toward exurban and rural areas. rural corridor, a town (Fig. 2). Correspondingly, their links to the central city have Corridor regions can vary in scale and form from the weakened, thus weakening the city and the entire Boston±Washington Megalopolis to a highway linking metro area. While metro areas exert a distant reach, two medium-sized cities. Some corridor regions can far beyond their built-up area, for regional design also form arcs or loops, and can be de®ned by the purposes, a metropolitan region consists of the densely outermost ring roads that circle large metropolises, settled, contiguous areas. some of which have two or even three rings. London, Madrid, and Houston are examples of three-ring cities. 5.3. Corridor regions The lands in corridor regions re¯ect the wide range of settlement patterns of the areas they encompass. A Corridor regions are areas surrounding linear trans- well-known New Jersey, USA, corridor Ð Princeton/ portation routes. Key communities are oriented along, Route One Ð has evolved during its history along the and bound together, by the major transit corridor. range of corridor types. Early on, discrete central place Linear corridor regions typically extend from one communities Ð Trenton, Princeton, New Brunswick metropolitan area to another, crossing suburbs and Ð were situated along the corridor and surrounded by 120 M. Neuman / Landscape and Urban Planning 47 (2000) 115±128

Fig. 2. Corridor region. open rural lands. More recently, the land between 5.4. Rural regions these communities has been developed. This devel- opment has been variously described as scattered, Rural regions typically consist of a system of towns, leapfrog, commercial strip, or sprawl. villages, and hamlets surrounded by open lands. The Land in a corridor region often forms a haphazard forests, farms, marshes, ranches, and other open lands set of development patterns with disparate uses. that make up the environs surrounding rural settled Development is not inter-connected to form a rich places have fewer transport, utility, or communica- mosaic, as in a metropolitan region. Corridor region tions lines crossing them. Settlement is concentrated growth in the last few decades has occurred in rapid in rural communities, and is sparse in the environs spurts. Nearby central places are connected by the (Fig. 3). corridor axis, and do not exhibit the rich articulation of An exemplary rural region is agricultural. It pos- connections in a well-developed metropolitan region. sesses large, contiguous tracts of farmland. It is pep- Much recent development in corridor regions has been pered with rural communities. It is loosely crossed by weakly connected to its environs as well. These two lane country roads, and occasionally, wider high- haphazard patterns result in of®ces that abut farm- ways. A largely intact rural region has not suffered lands, and housing that is not near employment, incursions by sprawl or a proliferation of linkages. commerce, and services. This new settlement pattern Another type of rural region can be even more distant in corridor regions has precluded the formation of from urban centers. These may be called ecological or communities as they were formerly understood as natural regions, although strictly speaking, those two central places. terms can be misleading in this context. Terminology M. Neuman / Landscape and Urban Planning 47 (2000) 115±128 121

Fig. 3. Rural region. aside, North American examples of this sort of region regions, a megalopolis is anchored by two large cities include the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the Ever- or metropolises at either end (Gottman, 1961). glades in Florida, and the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Rural corridor regions tend to be more linear than a metropolitan corridor region. They tend to follow 5.5. Hybrid regions geographic terrain such as river valleys. Classic exam- ples include the Burgundy Valley in France or the Just as the once-sharp edge between town and Central Valley in California. The size of cities and country has dissolved in sprawl, once-distinct region towns in the rural corridors tend to be smaller than in types, such as rural and metropolitan, have dissolved urban corridor regions and megalopolises. This, how- into each other as well. At an extreme scale, a mega- ever, is changing. In California's Central Valley, lopolis, as described by geographer Jean Gottmann, is population is projected to increase by ten million a linear corridor multi-metropolitan region. The ori- persons over the next 25 years. Once rural, now many ginal North American megalopolis stretched from high-technology ®rms locate in the Central Valley to Boston to Washington, encompassing ten states, 400 ¯ee the skyrocketing land prices and costs of living in miles, and ®fty million people. The Los Angeles±San the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas. Diego±Tijuana megalopolis is a corridor-based South- Other large-scale multi-metropolis regions follow ern California megalopolis. A European corridor the form of natural features, such as bays. Tokyo, megalopolis is along the Rhine River in Germany, Yokohama, and Yokosuka ring Tokyo Bay, Japan, with extending from Stuttgart to Dortmund. Like corridor over 25 million people. San Francisco, San Jose, and 122 M. Neuman / Landscape and Urban Planning 47 (2000) 115±128

Oakland ring San Francisco Bay with seven million. ments. An element of regional design is the hierarchy New mega-cities sprawl in all directions over the of central places, which form a continuum from large landscape, covering 10,000 square miles or more. cities to small hamlets. Speci®cally, a hierarchy of ®ve These giants, such as Mexico City, Sao Paolo, Buenos central places consists of cities, regional or corridor Aires, and Los Angeles, can have 15±20 million centers, towns, villages, and hamlets. people or more. New types of mega-cities are emer- The size of a central place depends on the size of the ging, such as the triangular Houston±Dallas±Austin± region it serves. Small communities of place, such as San Antonio multi-plex in Texas, USA. This explod- neighborhoods, hamlets and villages, serve a small ing region has over 13 million people spread over area. Towns and corridor centers serve larger areas. 27,500 square miles. San Antonio, Houston and Dallas Urban centers serve a metropolitan region, along with rank second, fourth and ®fth, respectively, among the parts of outlying corridor and rural regions. From a fastest growing US cities with populations exceeding planning-and-design point of view, physical features one million, and Austin ranks as the third fastest of communities of place are: growing US city, with over 500,000. Dallas alone  Compact development, rather than low density or has grown at an average annual rate of over 4% from dispersed development 1970 to the present (Ellis, 1999).  An inter-related mixture of uses, rather than single A characteristic that distinguishes new mega-cities use from older metropolises is population density and land  A discernible core or central area that serves as a and resource consumption. Los Angeles, Buenos focus for activities Aires, and Sao Paolo have metropolis-wide average  Well-defined boundaries, with the edges of com- population densities of about 2000 per square mile. munities preferably defined by open spaces Compare that to Paris, London, New York, or Tokyo. Even the suburbs of New York, such as Hoboken, These and other features allow a host of bene®ts to Union City, and Seacaucus have densities of 40,000 accrue: a sense of identity and belonging to a place; a per square mile Ð 20 times more than the average in rich perceptual experience; better access to jobs and new mega-cities. The implications for regional design services; more ef®cient provision of infrastructure; a are vast. heterogeneous community; increased social interac- tion; and increased community involvement by its citizens and business people. 6. Communities of place

Communities of place are the cornerstones of regio- 7. The hierarchy of communities of place nal design. To enhance the rich diversity of commu- nities that pepper mature regions, and to create new The hierarchy of central place communities forms a communities, the regional design strategy organizes continuum from the largest settlements, urban centers, growth in, and adjacent to, existing and planned to the smallest, hamlets. They are described below. central places. In these places, public and commercial services can be provided most ef®ciently. A regional 7.1. Cities design strategy also leverages existing links among communities. Cities are historic centers of government, industry, Communities of place are the focal points for commerce, residence, and culture. These municipali- settlement in regional design. One challenge facing ties were built at high densities with a reliance on established communities is to assure that their com- public transportation. They contain a signi®cant num- munity character and identity are maintained as ber of jobs and households as well as a massive growth occurs. Regional design strives to provide investment in public facilities and access to multiple for variety in the size and location of central places transportation systems. in order to achieve diversity and affordability in Large-scale activities occur in cities. They are housing, public services, jobs, and quality environ- repositories of major industrial concerns, corporate M. Neuman / Landscape and Urban Planning 47 (2000) 115±128 123 headquarters, medical centers, universities, govern- of®ce, lower schools and perhaps middle and upper ment complexes, convention centers, museums, and schools, ®re police and other municipal services, as other large institutions and facilities. These major well as corner and convenience stores, cafes, restau- activities occur in cities because of their central loca- rants, retail stores, supermarkets, banks, and profes- tion within a large service region and their accessi- sional of®ces. They include a town square and other bility as the hub in a full-service transportation public and private community meeting places and network. spaces.

7.2. Regional or corridor centers 7.4. Villages

These centers exist outside of metro areas. Corridor Villages are small settlements, typically less than centers are located along major transportation corri- 1000 inhabitants, which accommodate small-scale dors. They are large, multi-purpose settlements that structures and activities. They are intimate residential absorb growth that would otherwise spill out into the communities that offer the most basic employment, countryside. They are accessible places that accom- services, and shopping for their inhabitants, as well as modate a signi®cant number of employees and offer a for those living in nearby rural and exurban areas. diverse range of housing, shopping, services, and Villages are less dense than towns, with less employ- recreation. Corridor and regional centers are compact ment and fewer services. They are characterized by settlements with de®ned boundaries. compact form, basic services within the village core, a Regional and corridor centers are smaller than a distinct building design vocabulary, and a community city. Activity and service centers include day-care, focus (village green or commons, perhaps) that is post of®ce, schools, library, and other municipal ser- de®ned by buildings. Larger villages may be served vices, hospital or medical clinic, hotels, a variety of by inter-community transit. Some community and retail and department stores as well as restaurants, social facilities are present. supermarkets, professional of®ces, and banks. They The periphery of the village is typically no more are linked by public transportation. than a quarter mile walk from the end of the com- mercial spine, village center or main street. The high- 7.3. Towns est density housing is located in the center, with the lower density on the outskirts. Housing and of®ces Towns are the primary centers for growth that takes may be located above shops. Avillage is identi®able in place in suburban and rural areas. They have a com- the landscape by open spaces that surround it. Village pact form, a distinct building design vocabulary, a facilities include day-care, a post of®ce, corner stores, central green, square, or common, and main street. cafes, a restaurant, a bank, and perhaps some of®ces. Town cores contain retail, service, and of®ce uses as Villages have a de®ned nucleus and identi®able edges. well as community and service facilities. The core usually has an inter-modal transportation stop or 7.5. Hamlets center. Towns are residential communities with all of the commercial and civic functions commonly Hamlets are the smallest scale rural settlements. needed on a daily basis, including supermarkets, grade These communities are primarily residential, and are schools, and a post of®ce. They also serve people even smaller than villages, with perhaps just a few living in outlying areas. homes and shops at a cross-roads. Hamlets have a A town is composed of several neighborhoods distinctive identity, and often possess a de®ned public which are within a short distance from the core. space. A hamlet has a compact nucleus with an Neighborhoods have a lesser range of housing types intentional meeting place, such as a green, tavern, and densities than regional centers or cities. Some day-care, cafeÂ, or post of®ce, which distinguishes it apartments and of®ces may be free-standing or located from the standard residence-only suburban subdivi- above smaller shops in the center of town. Some or all sion in form, use, and character. Hamlets have their of the following are found in towns: day-care, post own building design vocabulary. Streets form a com- 124 M. Neuman / Landscape and Urban Planning 47 (2000) 115±128 posite network. They are identi®able in the landscape 8.2. Combining linkages as distinct settlements and are surrounded by open lands. In regional design, when connecting communities of place, consideration is given to combining rights- of-way into shared, multiple-use rights-of-way. Func- 8. Linkages tional linkages, especially utilities, are co-located along existing transport or utility rights-of-way. The Linkages connect the communities of a region sharing of linkage rights-of-way saves acquisition and together into a network. They are pathways for people, upkeep costs, keeps open lands intact, minimizes goods, services, information, and energy to circulate aesthetic disruption, and decreases the environmental about a region. This circulatory system may consist of consequences of their development. This approach transport links Ð roads, rails, bikeways, bridges and builds on the `common carrier' notion used in tele- tunnels, rivers and air routes. Or communications communications. conduits Ð phones, computers, radio, television, fac- simile, and emerging combinations. They may be 8.3. Growth-leading linkages functional or utility links Ð water supply, sewers, power, solid waste. Links can also be environmental Taken together, transportation, water, and waste- Ð greenways, waterways, wildlife corridors, scenic water disposal are `growth-leading' infrastructure. All corridors, beaches. These categories and lists are far three need to exist in adequate capacity as a pre-condi- from exhaustive. There are also economic, cultural, tion for community-scale growth. Used wisely, growth- and historic linkages Ð markets, houses of worship, leading infrastructure can be an effective growth school systems, professional associations, family ties, management technique. Managing this infrastructure and the like. through the combined application of community ser- Linkages within a community serve a purpose vice boundaries, impact fees, adequate capital facil- similar to links among communities. While at a dif- ities requirements, and timing and sequencing enables ferent scale, they bind the various functions of the municipalities to get a grip on growth and its costs. community together. They are conduits to or for In order to foster community growth at sustainable activities by which the residents come together. levels, the scale of infrastructure should match the community it serves. For example, sewage disposal 8.1. Linkage density and capacity methods should vary according to settlement size. On- site systems are appropriate for small, low-density Different region types have different `densities' of hamlets and villages if soil and other hydrogeologic linkages. Linkages in metropolitan regions are the conditions permit, and for sparse development dis- most dense. The linkage `fabric' of streets and public persed in the rural environs. Regional sewer systems transport, communication lines and utilities is woven are more appropriate for large towns, regional centers, tightly. Rural region linkages are the least dense. They and metropolitan areas. Mid-range community sewage resemble a loose web with more space between disposal systems are viable for compact villages and strands. The density of corridor region linkages falls small towns. somewhere in-between that of rural and metropolitan links, and tend to be linear. Keeping these arteries unclogged is vital to the 9. Environs health of the whole region. Providing for adequate capacity and managing its ¯ow is one key to regional The lands between central places exert a profound design. A carrying capacity approach to establish and pervasive in¯uence on the communities they linkage capacity, similar to that used for development, contain. The geography, demography, and natural can be an effective tool to manage regional growth. resources of a region affect the size, function, and Acceptable levels of service can be established and location of the settlements that mark its landscape. In maintained on conduits between central places. order to plan effectively for central places, it is M. Neuman / Landscape and Urban Planning 47 (2000) 115±128 125 necessary to plan at the same time for the lands that 9.3. Rural environs surround them. The reciprocal relation between a place and its environs must be considered during Rural environs are those open farm and natural planning and development. lands which have remained mostly intact in the face Environs differ from the central places in having of sprawl. The predominant settlements are rural less intense settlement than the central place itself. towns, villages, and hamlets that dot an otherwise The less dense environ serves to de®ne the `place' of open landscape. Economic activities in the past were the community and mark its borders. Activities ancil- tied to the land or its natural resources. Recently, lary to, and supportive of, the central places occur in housing and of®ce/research campuses for urban and the environs, such as high-value agriculture, natural- corridor-housed workers have been located in them, resource extraction, recreation, and other activities scattered about in low-rise buildings on sites with low that require large tracts of land. ¯oor area ratios. In the past, natural features formed the character of 9.1. Metropolitan environs rural lands. Land and water were resilient enough to sustain sparse, primarily residential, development Metropolitan regions are mosaics. They are made without damage to the environment. Certain features up of cities with their central business districts and of the rural landscape had inherent capacities that were neighborhoods, adjoining suburbs, parks, and trans- not exceeded, so that low levels of growth were port, river and other corridors. Metropolitan environs sustained over time. These features included indigen- are the extensions of their central and edge cities. The ous water supply, soils, slopes and other geologic reach of their urban centers extends to encompass the features, the rural road network, and the prevailing activities that feed the economy of their region. Urban rural character. Now that has changed, as many types centers, both central business districts and edge cities, of infrastructure at urban intensities have spread are the hubs for the linkages through which the region throughout the countryside, often irrevocably chan- is interconnected. ging its rural character. Changing this growth pattern is one of the more dif®cult challenges for regional 9.2. Corridor environs design.

Corridor environs are a relatively new phenomenon in the landscape. The primary impetus for corridor 10. The state-of-the-art growth has been the massive highway construction beginning after World War II. Early corridor regions There have been several advances to regional were based on passenger and freight railroad lines. design, since its rebirth in the late 1980s with the These highways and rail lines extended radii out from New Jersey State Plan. It is instructive to note that the central cities into the open countryside or along these advances have come at the hands of practi- coastlines. Coupled with direct access to economic tioners, not academics. It is also noteworthy that centers via prime transportation links, these corridors innovations have occurred in the metropolitan realm, became the loci of unprecedented growth. Corridor orchestrated by both non-governmental and govern- growth was so rapid and complete that it connected mental regional entities. This part of my exegesis areas that were formerly considered hinterlands to the concentrates on the United States, with some scattered metropolitan region. examples from Europe. As a result of booming growth, services were Precursors to a fully articulated regional design unable to keep pace. Leapfrog development, not program were manifest in the 1980s. Taking cues respecting prior community settlement form, ensued. from Kevin Lynch's pioneering work in San Diego, Accordingly, contemporary corridor environs are the interdisciplinary design ®rm Carr Lynch. Hack and mostly comprised of single-use, poorly connected Sandell undertook several regional design projects for developments that are scattered loosely among open American clients (Lynch and Appleyard, 1974). Much or partly developed lands. of this work was led by Gary Hack, now dean at the 126 M. Neuman / Landscape and Urban Planning 47 (2000) 115±128

University of Pennsylvania. Robert Yaro and a group New York and Environs was implemented nearly of collaborators in Massachusetts prepared a design single-handedly by Robert Moses. manual titled Dealing with Change in the Connecticut In 1991, the National Endowment for the Arts River Valley in rural New England (Yaro et al., 1988). awarded a grant to the New Jersey Of®ce of State The Portland metropolitan area began its studies and Planning to further develop regional design and pre- plans that became the predecessors to the Portland pare a ®lm about it. It was co-produced with the Metropolitan Plan of the 1990s. Regional Plan Association of New York. After this Regional design as conceived in this article was grant and the New Jersey State and New York Regio- developed by the New Jersey Of®ce of State Planning. nal Plans came, in rapid succession, the new Regional It constituted a Regional System Advisory Committee Design committee of the Boston Chapter of the Amer- composed of 20 scholars, practitioners, and special- ican Institute of Architects (AIA), the reforming and interest group representatives. The physical frame- renaming of the national AIA Committee on Urban work for regional design as outlined herein is Design to Regional and Urban Design, and numerous taken from the document produced by the Of®ce books and articles on the subject (Hough, 1990; Lewis, of State Planning for the Committee, of which I 1996; Kelbaugh, 1997; Thompson and Steiner, 1997). was the primary author (New Jersey Of®ce of State Regional design has become a ®xture in the imagina- Planning, 1990; New Jersey State Planning Commis- tion and practice of planning and design professionals sion, 1992). nationwide. Shortly thereafter, the Regional Plan Association of In Europe, especially in the southern countries with New York embarked on its third regional plan. At the long traditions of urban planning being done exclu- outset of its journey, it engaged in a three-day collo- sively by architects, such as Spain and Italy, regional quium and design charette to establish a strategy for its design also has had a renaissance. Madrid's regional plan. Some 25 national leaders in the ®eld were government, the Communidad AutoÂnoma de Madrid, gathered by Bob Yaro, now Executive Director of prepared a regional design plan in the 1990s called the the RPA, including Peter Calthorpe, Tom Cooke, `Plan Regional de EstrateÂgia Territorial' Ð a some- Robert Stern, and myself. The group was chaired what confusing double pleonasm which translates as by Robert Geddes, founder of the design ®rm GBQC the Regional Plan of Territorial Strategy (Neuman, and then Dean of Architecture at Princeton University. 1994, 1995, 1996). Barcelona adopted its own regional On the ®rst day, after I shared my vision of regional design plan called the `Pla Territorial MetropolitaÁ de design, fresh off the New Jersey front, Dean Geddes Barcelona' in the 1990s, prepared by the Catalonian interjected that ``a region cannot be designed.'' That regional government, to which I was a consultant. comment notwithstanding, at the conclusion of the three-day charette, regional design emerged as the operative framework for the plan-to-be. The plan, 11. Implications of the regional design imperative adopted in 1996, re¯ects an extraordinary synthesis of thousands of collaborators in a regional civic milieu Today, mobility and choice are two tenets that the over a ®ve-year period (Yaro and Hiss, 1996). fortunate among us live by. This is especially evident It is through intensive regionwide collaboration in a in the current period of economic wealth and abun- de®ned institutional context that distinguishes regio- dance. `Press one for more options' is much more than nal design from architectural design or urban design. a recorded prompt; it is a near mantra for the af¯uent. The scale of the latter two permits an individual What does this mean for regional design and its designer to be the identi®ed `author'. The scale and practitioners? complexity of regions today mitigate against such Add to the mix dual-income households, indivi- single authorship, even though regional plans and duals who work more than one job, the rise of home- designs in the US had been authored by individuals, based work and free-lance and temporary labor, and such as the New York State Plan in 1926 by Henry the panoply of portable digital telecommunications Wright and the Appalachian Trail plan of the same era technology, of which cellular phones and mobile by Benton MacKaye. Even the ®rst Regional Plan for phones are just the tip of the iceberg, and we get a M. Neuman / Landscape and Urban Planning 47 (2000) 115±128 127 sense of just how different metro regions are today Castells, Manuel, 1996. The Rise of the Network Society. compared to just 20 years ago, much less a century ago Blackwell, Cambridge, MA. Castells, Manuel, 1989. The Informational City: Information when regional design ®rst appeared as a professional Technology, Economic Restructuring, and the Urban-Regional practice. In an era when globetrotting executives and Process. Basil Blackwell, Cambridge, MA. professionals can spend more time in planes, airports, Cheever, John, 1969. Bullet Park. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. and cars than at home or of®ce, how does this affect Ellis, Christopher, 1999. The Texas Urban Triangle. the shape of a region? Friedmann, John, Weaver, C., 1979. Territory and Function: The Global cities, such as New York, London, and Evolution of Regional Planning. Edward Arnold, London. Geddes, Patrick, 1915. Cities in Evolution. Williams and Norgate, Tokyo, are in many ways more connected to each London. other, and to ®nancial command centers in cities, such Gottman, Jean, 1961. Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern as Los Angeles, Paris, Hong Kong, and Sao Paolo, Seaboard of the United States. Twentieth Century Fund, New than they are to their own states and provinces (Sassen, York. Hall, Peter, 1998. Cities in Civilization. Random House, New York. 1991). The very sense of what is a region is shifting Hall, Peter, 1988. Cities of Tomorrow: An Intellectual History of rapidly in this global context. Amidst these massive Urban Planning and Design in the Twentieth Century. Basil movements, the players at the regional design table Blackwell, Oxford and New York. come and go as be®ts their strategies. For many of Healey, Patsy, Khakee, Abdul, Motte, Alain, Needham, Barrie them, especially recent arrivals steeped in global (Eds.), 1997. Making Strategic Spatial Plans: Innovation in Europe. University College London Press, London. business and political affairs rather than city planning, Hough, Michael, 1990. Out of Place: Restoring Identity to the regional design occupies an ancillary portion of their Regional Landscape. Yale University Press, New Haven. thinking, if at all. This means that, to effectuate Howard, Ebenezer, 1898. To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real regional design, institutional design becomes para- Reform. Swan Sonnenschein, London. mount. Jacobs, Jane, 1984. Cities and the Wealth of Nations: Principles of Europeans have an advantage over North Ameri- Economic Life. Random House, New York. Kelbaugh, Douglas, 1997. Common Place: Toward Neighborhood cans in regional institutional design, because many and Regional Design. University of Washington Press, Seattle. countries on the continent have provincial and/or Kramer, Robert, 1996. Organizing for Global Competitiveness: The regional institutions that can, and do, coordinate European Regional Design. The Conference Board, New York. and execute regional planning (Healey et al., 1997; Kropotkin, Piotr, 1913. Fields, Factories and Workshops: or Industry Combined with Agriculture and Brain Work with Kramer, 1996). There are few cases in North America Manual Work. Putnam, New York. where effective regional governance and planning Lewis, Philip, 1996. Tomorrow by Design: A Regional Design have established track records. Among the few, Tor- Process for Sustainability. Wiley, New York. onto, San Diego, Portland, Minneapolis±St. Paul, Lynch, Kevin, Appleyard, Donald, 1974. Temporary paradise? A Lake Tahoe, and the New Jersey Pinelands stand look at the special landscape of the San Diego Region. Report to the City of San Diego Planning Department, San Diego, CA. out. Each has taken a dramatically different tack to Lynch, Kevin, 1974. `Urban Design' Encyclopaedia Britannica, institutional design and to regional design. While 15th Edition. In: Banerjee, Southworth (Eds.), 1990. City Sense explaining and exploring institutional design is and City Design: The Writings and Projects of Kevin Lynch. beyond the scope of this article, when it is contem- MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. poraneous with regional design, the latter has a better Lynch, Kevin, 1976. Managing the Sense of a Region. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. chance to be effective. Regional design is becoming Markusen, Ann, 1987. Regions: The Economics and Politics of the next frontier for planning and design professionals. Territory. Rowan and Little®eld, Totowa, NJ. When coupled with institutional design, regional McHarg, Ian, 1969. Design With Nature. Doubleday/Natural design can move from frontier to franchise. History Press, Garden City, NY. Mitchell, Joni, 1970. `Big Yellow Taxi' Ladies of the Canyon. Reprise Records, New York. Neuman, Michael, 1994. El EslaboÂnDeÂbil del Urbanismo References MadrilenÄo. Alfoz. 107, 129±136. Neuman, Michael, La Imagen y La Ciudad, Ciudad Territorio. III, Bacon, Ed., 1967. Design of Cities. Viking, New York. 104 (1995) 377±394. Calthorpe, Peter, 1993. The Next American Metropolis. Princeton Neuman, Michael, 1996. Images as Institution Builders: Metropo- Architectural Press, New York. litan Planning in Madrid European Planning Studies 4(3) 128 M. Neuman / Landscape and Urban Planning 47 (2000) 115±128

(1996) 293±312; also in: Healey, Patsy, et al. (Eds.), 1997. Thompson, George, Steiner, Frederick, 1997. Ecological Design Making Strategic Spatial Plans: Innovation in Europe. Uni- and Planning. Wiley, New York. versity College London Press, London. Whyte, William, 1958. Urban sprawl. Fortune, pp. 115±139. New Jersey Of®ce of State Planning, 1990. The Regional Design Yaro, Robert, Hiss, Tony, 1996. A Region at Risk. Regional Plan System. The New Jersey Of®ce of State Planning, Trenton. Association, New York. New Jersey State Planning Commission, 1992. Communities of Yaro, Robert, et al., 1988. Dealing With Change in the Connecticut place: The New Jersey State Development and Redevelopment River Valley: A Design Manual for Conservation and Devel- Plan. New Jersey State Planning Commission, Trenton. opment. Lincoln Institute for Land Policy, Cambridge, MA. Philadelphia City Planning Commission, 1960. Comprehensive plan: the physical development plan for the City of Philadel- Michael Neuman is an Associate Professor in the Department of phia. Philadelphia City Planning Commission. Draft. Ed Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning at Texas A&M Bacon's rendering of Philadelphia is in the 1963 version. University, where he teaches courses in city and regional planning Sassen, Saskia, 1991. The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. and their institutions of governance. Before joining the Texas A&M Princeton University Press, Princeton. Faculty, he taught at the University of California at Berkeley. He is Saxenian, AnnaLee, 1994. Regional Advantage: Culture and also a consultant to private, public and non-profit clients in the Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128. Harvard United States and Europe on metropolitan planning, strategic University Press, Cambridge, MA. planning, conflict resolution and community development. He is Sussman, C. (Ed.), 1976. Planning the Fourth Migration: The the author of publications on planning, institutions, and conflict Neglected Vision of the Regional Planning Association of resolution. He holds an M.C.P. from the University of Pennsylva- America. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. nia, and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.