Designing the American City: Civic Aspirations and Urban Form

Literature and Arts B Designing the American City: Civic Aspirations and Urban Form. This course takes an interpretive look at the American city in terms of changing attitudes toward urban life. City and suburb are experienced as the product of design and planning decisions informed by cultural and economic forces, and in relationship to utopian and pragmatic efforts to reinterpret urban traditions in search of American alternatives. Topics include: persistent ideals such as the single-family home; attitudes toward public and private space; the rise of suburbs and suburban sprawl; cycles of disinvestment and renewed interest in urban centers; and impacts of mobility and technology on settlement patterns. This course is a lecture in the college\’s core curriculum, with a weekly graduate section with Alex Krieger for GSD and other graduate students that will meet Thursdays immediately after the lecture. Enrollment is limited to 20 graduate students.