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RPA Plan2 Urban Design Manhattan Page 075

Apr 1969

Second Regional Plan

Urban Design Manhattan

A Report of the Second Regional Plan

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The accelerated growth of cities and the constant need for expanded business space have become characteristic of all highly developed economies and will remain a continuing factor in the urban environment everywhere. How to accommodate this growth efficiently, gracefully, and with concern for human values is the challenge which this book seeks to explore.

Urban Design Manhattan, prepared by Rai Y. Okamoto and Frank E. Williams, Urban Design Consultants to the Regional Plan Association, uses Midtown Manhattan, ​“the center of centers,” to demonstrate the application of urban design principles. The ​“Access Tree” principle calls for integration of the horizontal and vertical movement in our urban centers. The corresponding form consequence of ​“Highs and Lows” has been applied at many different scales. This urban design study not only exposes the problem but presents a powerful visual statement of what urban centers can be, always with ultimate concern that human needs and human scale prevail over the forces that are shaping urban centers today.

The problem of most urban redesign is not primarily the lack of imaginative designers or of architects, engineers, and planners, but of a practical method of harnessing the unrivaled vitality of private developers and investors to work with the city authorities and thus to concert their energies to create the new centers which fit modern needs.

Images from the report

RPA Plan2 Urban Design Manhattan 34 Access Tree Diagram RPA Urban Design Manhattan Page 041 RPA Urban Design Manhattan Page 033 1969 2 RPA Plan2 Urban Design Manhattan Page 075 RPA Urban Design Manhattan Page 062 RPA Urban Design Manhattan Page 017 RPA Urban Design Manhattan Page 073 RPA Plan2 Urban Design Manhattan 070 RPA Urban Design Manhattan Page 071 RPA Urban Design Manhattan Page 059 Urban Design Manhattan
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Research Areas

Housing & Neighborhood PlanningTransportation

Location

New York

Topics

Economic DevelopmentZoningSubwayCarsPenn StationGrand Central Terminal

Acknowledgements

Authored by

  • Rai Okamoto

    Former Urban Design Consultant

  • Frank Williams

    Former Urban Design Consultant

  • Dietrich Kunkel

  • Carlisle Towery

  • Charles McKim Norton

    Former President

  • Stanley Tankel

    Planning Director

  • Boris Pushkarev

    Former Vice President, Research and Planning

  • William Shore

  • Barbara Towery

Other Reports in this Series

May 1969
in Second Regional Plan
Public Services in Older Cities A Report of the Second Regional Plan
Oct 1967
in Second Regional Plan
Basic Issues of the Second Regional Plan
Feb 1966
in Second Regional Plan
Major Issues of Metropolitan Development
Nov 1964
in Second Regional Plan
Regional Plan News Overview: The Second Regional Plan

Total Reports

454

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