town planning theory on the paris and washington

1. Washington D.C & Paris
History ofTown Planning
Prepared by :
Reshmi R
Praleen Priyakumar
Dhanya Poduval
Oshin Nair
Roshan Raghunathan
Anjaly elizabath Paul
Shrishti Shetty
Akash John
PranjaliThakre
Sarvesha Zaparde
Pooja Sawant

2. Paris

3. Historical background
3rd century B.C.
Settlement by a
Celtic fishermen.
52 B.C.
Julius Caesar seizes the
city.
Around 250 A.D.
Paris Christianised.
4th-9th centuries:
Frankish and Norman
invasions.
1163:
Construction of the Notre
Dame Cathedral begins.
Late 14th century
Black Death.
July 14, 1789
French revolution
Fall of bastile

4. Evolution of planning
• Paris was born with the development of the villages on La Cite. But it got its name Paris, only in the
4th century from its former name Lutetia.
• Early Parisians were fishermen, farmers, foresters, herdsmen and boatmen who had prospered on
the banks of the river Seine. In 51 B.C. the Romans conquered Lutetia.
1.The first medieval town wall, built
around 1200.
2.The second medieval wall from the
end of the fourteenth century, which
under Louis XIV made way for the
promenades. 3.The tariff wall of 1780,
demolished in the 1860s. 4.The ring of
fortifications of the 1840s, later in 1860
to become the municipal and tariff
border
• Under the Roman Empire the region had prospered as a junction between the North-South and the
Seine. La Cite was enclosed in a wall due to persistent attacks from the barbarians.
• The Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth century and the Merovingian's and the Carolingians came
into power.
• In the 9th century Paris was pillaged and ransomed by the Vikings. Crucial architectural development
stated during the reign of Philippe August in the 12th century. A second wall was constructed around
the city that had, by then, increasingly expanded to the North and the South of the Seine.
• New growth sprung up along the major roads, because of inadequate space inside the city.
• The administration of Paris was reorganized in the year 1261 and was divided between the provost
King (affairs of the state) and the provost merchant (local affairs). Thus we can see the organizational
change of power where the merchants are allotted some power. Also for the fiscal register were
furnished to list the taxpayers and the numbers of households. Social and political changes during the
same century helped bringing about the building of cathedrals, excellence of the universities, the
proliferation of colleges and convents, the installation of mendicant order and the flowering of
Gothic.

5. Evolution of planning
• Towards the end of the seventeenth century Paris, together with Vienna, was probably the most
heavily developed town in Europe. Houses were being built higher and higher, the courtyards
becoming more cramped and the traffic more chaotic in the narrow streets.
• Victoires, designed and built in the 1680s under the direction of J.H. Mansart by order of the
Marechal de la Feuillade.The architecture was of uniform design, and the centre of the
square was occupied by a statue of Louis XIV being crowned with a laurel wreath by a flying
figure ofVictory.
• By the end of the MiddleAges Paris had become a complex urban structure consisting of several core
settlements now joined to one another. Apart from some of the churches there were practically no
monumental accents.The old, spontaneously evolving network of narrow and twisty streets, most of
which ran parallel or away from the bank of the river, was already inadequate
• In the 14th yet century another wall was built in northern Paris. The city was developing into a center
of finance and a principal diplomatic center in Europe.

6. Evolution of planning
•The along side map shows the
intersection of two movement system
,where the old Roman roads cross the
River Seine.
•This established the design centre and
the line of force leading to the
formation of orientation for the
classical Roman city
•This map shows the Medieval Paris as
it was from 1367 to 1383.
•The ancient crossing determines the
centre of the tightly developed town
•The wall defining the area of intensity
at the juncture of the movement
system
•The inner dotted line shows the
position of the first wall built north of
the river
•The pressure of city growth continued
and the walls were further extended
Paris in 1300
•A medieval walled city developed around
the crossing of the River Seine
•The Louvre palace is the point of origin of
the design forces
Paris in 1600
•White line indicates the position of wall during
1300
•The grey shows the outward extension to the
new wall due to the pressure of city growth

7. Evolution of planning
• Proper water mains and sewage
system were prescribed in the plan.
• Narrow and polluted streets.
• Regular grid housing blocks.
1760
1765
• New principal streets were added.
• More round open spaces were
prescribed.
• No pedestrian footpath.
• Busy food market around the open
spaces.
1834
• New market halls were introduced
in order avoid the cramped market
places along the streets.
• Proper water conduits prescribed.
• New sewage system prescribed due
to deterioration of sewage system
introduced earlier.

8. Planning principles
Below : Île de la Cité, 1754.
Along side: after Haussmann’s regulations
. 1. SainteChapelle.
2. Notre-Dame.
3. Hôtel-Dieu.
4. Palais de Justice.
5. Place Dauphine.
6.Tribunal de Commerce.
7. Caserne de la Cité (now Préfecture de
Police).The letters designate bridges. [From
Lameyre (1958)]
• Buildings, politics, and aesthetics:
Haussmann envisioned a city focused
visually and functionally on major
institutions like RR stations; the opera
house, the town hall, the cathedral, etc.;
major architectural units linked by great
avenues; also monuments like Notre
Dame isolated and turned into museum
pieces

9. Planning principles
• During a time of industrial change and cultural advancement, Paris became the new home for many,
overcrowding the ancient districts and spreading disease.The city, which had been untouched since
the MiddleAges, was in dire need of reflecting the new modern ways and putting an end to the
spreading medical epidemics.The tight confines of Medieval Paris were hindering the city’s potential
for growth and desire to transform into a well-organized urban center. Napoleon III set about
bringing order and structure to the chaotic, cramped city and putting an end to its' identity crisis
• Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann, chosen by Napoleon III to lead the project, created new roads,
public parks, public monuments, as well as installing new sewers and changing the architectural
façade of the city.With the aid of the public, Modernist Napoleon III set out to undertake one of the
largest urban transformations since the burning of London in 1666.
• In 1853, Haussman had outlined and began construction on a series of basic projects that had been
planned since the decision had been made to modernize the city.The projects included creating a
north-south axis in the city, developing the quarters around the Opéra, as well as “the annexation of
the suburbs to make them outer arrondissements, the sewer system, and the water supply
• The next step in Haussmann’s plan for the new Paris was to divide the city into arrondissements, or
districts.The decision to divide Paris into these new districts came about in 1853, at the same time as
the decision to modernize the city completely.The plan “implied the destruction of the old,
heterogenous quarters in the city center and the creation of large new quarters implicitly dividing
the population by economic status.
• To accompany the new streets and provide visual unity to the entire city, Haussmann and his team
of architects constructed a unifying architectural façade that changed the shape of Paris. As well as
coating the city with a unifying style, they also constructed new public buildings, such as L’Opéra ,
as well as many other buildings

10. Paris before Haussmann
• In the middle of the nineteenth century, the center of Paris was
overcrowded, dark, dangerous, and unhealthy.
• The street plan on the ÎIe de la Cité and in the neighbourhood
called the quarter des Arcis, between the Louvre and the Hotel de
Ville, had changed little since the Middle Ages.
• The population density in these neighbourhoods was extremely
high, compared with the rest of Paris; in the neighbourhood of
the Champs-Élysées, there was one resident for every 186 square
meters; in the neighbourhoods of Arcis and Saint-Avoye, in the
present Third Arrondissement, there was one inhabitant for every
three square meters.
• In these conditions, disease spread very quickly. Cholera
epidemics ravaged the city in 1832 and 1848. In the epidemic of
1848, five percent of the inhabitants of these two
neighbourhoods had died.
• Traffic circulation was another major problem. The widest streets
in these two neighbourhoods were only five meters wide; the
narrowest were only one or two meters wide. Wagons, carriages
and carts could barely move through the streets.
• The center of the city was also a cradle of discontent and
revolution; between 1830 and 1848, seven armed uprisings and
revolts had broken out in the centre of Paris.
• On 10 December 1848, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, the nephew
of Napoleon Bonaparte, won the first direct presidential elections
ever held in France with an overwhelming 74.2 percent of the
votes cast. He was elected largely because of his famous name,
but also because of his promise to try to end poverty and improve
the lives of ordinary people.
• As soon as he was President, he supported the building of the
first subsidised housing project for workers in Paris, the Cité-
Napoleon, on the Rue Rochechouart. He proposed the
completion of the Rue de Rivoli from the Louvre to the Hotel de
Ville, completing the project begun by his uncle Napoleon
Bonaparte, and he began a project to build a large new public
park, the Bois de Boulogne, modelled after Hyde Park in London
but much larger, on the west side of the city. He wanted both
these projects to be completed before the end of his term in
1852, but became frustrated by the slow progress made by his
prefect of the Seine, Berger.
• Napoleon III dismissed Berger as the Prefect of the Seine and
sought a more effective manager. His minster of the
interior, Victor de Persigny, interviewed several candidates, and
selected George Eugene Haussmann, the prefect of Bordeaux,
who impressed Persigny with his energy, audacity, and ability to
overcome or get around problems and obstacles.

11. Initial planning and execution
• Haussmann moulded the city into a geometric grid, with new
streets running east and west, north and south, dividing Medieval
Paris into new sections. His plan brought symmetry to the city,
something it was lacking beforehand.
• During a time when the city was filled to the brim with people,
disease was a large risk. The widening of the streets would relieve
the cramped city and allow for the people to get around more
easily.
• It also allowed for an increase in height of the buildings, providing
more room for the people of Paris to live and thrive in.
• Running alongside the new roads, which had been widened to
accommodate the rising number of people living within the city
limits, were rows of chestnut trees, which allowed Haussmann to
maintain the geometric and symmetrical aesthetic that he had
created with the new roads.
• Where he struggled to maintain his visual order, new public
spaces and monuments were erected.
• He was also responsible for isolating Notre-Dame from the city,
emphasizing its’ importance to the city.
• The next step in Haussmann’s plan for the new Paris was to divide
the city into arrondissements, or districts.
• The districts started inward, on the banks of the Seine, and
spiralled outwards.
• The plan “implied the destruction of the old, heterogenous
quarters in the city center and the creation of large new quarters
implicitly dividing the population by economic status.”
• The original plan called for twelve districts, but in 1860, Paris
annexed surrounding communities and was divided into twenty
districts.
• Plan of Paris

12. Initial planning and execution
• With the division of the city into arrondissements came the need
for a new water and sewer system. Aided by his chief engineer
Eugene Belgrand, Haussmann developed and began construction
in 1857 on a larger sewer system that could handle the large
amounts of wastewaters coming from the growing city that would
be funneled into the Seine downstream from Paris.
• With the growing popularity of water closets, particularly in the
richer Parisian districts, came a need to funnel human waste into
the sewer system as well. The proposal to channel human faeces
into the sewers that would mix with the storm water and flow
into the Seine was an idea Haussmann objected to.
• To maintain the order of the water and the urban space,
Haussmann viewed it as necessary to keep the clean water
separate from the dirty water.
• Also by utilizing the new sewer system for human waste, the city
would become cleaner and more sterile, eliminating the smell of
rotting waste and lowering the threat of disease from living in
cramped, contaminated quarters.
• To accompany the new streets and provide visual unity to the
entire city, Haussmann and his team of architects constructed a
unifying architectural façade that changed the shape of Paris.
• As well as coating the city with a unifying style, they also
constructed new public buildings, such as L’Opéra , as well as
many other buildings.
• With the widening of the Parisian streets, Haussmann and his
crew were able to add an extra story of height to the buildings
that lined the roads. The additional height increased the amount
of living space within the city limits, easing up on the
overcrowding, but not changing the affordability of the housing.
• They are noted by their simple decoration and adherence to the
classical style. An emphasis on the horizontal can be seen in the
façade, following the horizontal of the streets they sat next to,
adding to the symmetry and geometric unity that Haussmann
wanted the new Paris to have.
• Haussmann also created twenty-four new squares; seventeen in
the older part of the city, eleven in the new arrondissements,
adding 150,000 square meters of green space.
• The Bois de Boulogne was inspired by Hyde Park in London, and
was designed to provide rest and relaxation for families of all
classes of Parisians.(shown below)

13. Planning
The first map is of Pre-Haussmann Paris

14. Initial planning and execution
• With the rise of the nouveux riches came the need for hôtels or
living spaces for the rich within the city. Unlike the simple,
austere apartment houses, no expense was spared on decoration
and they were constructed in the most fashionable districts
within Paris. They were not neoclassical in style like the
apartments, but a mixture of early Renaissance and the ornate
baroque style. The hôtels were symbols of wealth and status and
the rising modernity in Paris.
• Since the undertaking of the modernization of Paris in the 1850’s,
Haussmann’s name has become ubiquitous with urban planning.
With the help and approval of Napoleon III, Haussmann was able
to transform an entire city in a period of twenty years.
• The once Medieval city was now a modern power house with
room to grow. The redistricting of the city, building of new roads,
monuments, public spaces and places, as well as new public
works buildings and a new sewer system all added to the
grandeur of the city.
• Haussmann not only improved the appearance of Paris, but also
the health of the people. By widening the streets and building
more housing, he eased the overcrowding and lowered the threat
of disease.
• The new sewer system also helped create a cleaner Paris by
channeling the waste water and human waste away from the city
to ease on the smell and the dirt that would make Paris seem
uncivilized. Haussmann’s new buildings proved to be more
functional and stronger than the previous buildings in Paris.
• Modern day Paris

15. Problems faced by Haussmann while executing his plan
• Despite his desire to create a well organized and symmetrical city,
his lack of skills as an urban planner got the best of him and he
was forced to work around existing streets in order to adhere to
his desire for symmetry in the city.
• The existing architecture in Paris proved to be his greatest enemy
when laying out the new roads.
• The respect for the ancient monuments outweighed the need to
unify the city completely and the river Seine served as a natural
barrier separating the two sides of Paris and the roads that once
had the ambition to link the two riverbanks.
• With this magnificent transformation of Paris into a modern city,
came a big budget. According to the article “Money and Politics in
the Rebuilding of Paris, 1860-1870,” Haussmann calculated in
1869 that the cost of rebuilding Paris since the project’s
beginning in 1851 was to be 2,500,000,000 francs.
• Haussmann and Napoleon III did not forsee the project costing
this much and had not raised the amount of money needed to
pay for all of their construction. With the addition of new
elements to the project, the budget only soared. Many people
living in Paris during the time felt that Haussmann and crew had
lied to them about the costs of the renovations and felt that the
city had been paralyzed by the never ending construction.
• Haussmann did not have time to finish the third phase of his
planning, as he soon came under intense attack from the
opponents of Napoleon III. • Georges-Eugene Haussmann, the Prefect of the Seine
under Napoleon III

16. Paris post Haussmann
• In the parliamentary elections of May 1869, the government
candidates won 4.43 million votes, while the opposition
republicans won 3.35 million votes. In Paris, the republican
candidates won 234,000 votes to 77,000 for the Bonapartist
candidates, and took eight of the nine seats of Paris deputies.
• At the same time Napoleon III was increasingly ill, suffering from
gallstones which were to cause his death in 1873, and
preoccupied by the political crisis that would lead to the Franco-
Prussian War.
• In December 1869 Napoleon III named an opposition leader and
fierce critic of Haussmann, Emile Ollivier, as his new prime
minister. Napoleon gave in to the opposition demands in January
1870 and asked Haussmann to resign. Haussmann refused to
resign, and the Emperor reluctantly dismissed him on 5 January
1870.
• In his memoires, written many year later, Haussmann had this
comment on his dismissal: "In this eyes of the Parisians, who like
routine in things but are changeable when it comes to people, I
committed two great wrongs; over the course of seventeen years
I disturbed their daily habits by turning Paris upside down, and
they had to look at the same face of the Prefect in the Hotel de
Ville. These were two unforgiveable complaints."
• Haussmann's successor as prefect of the Seine appointed Jean-
Charles Alphand, the head of Haussmann's department of parks
and plantations, as the director of works of Paris. Alphand
respected the basic concepts of his plan. Despite their intense
criticism of Napoleon III and Haussmann during the Second
Empire, the leaders of the new Third Republic continued and
finished his renovation projects.
Haussmann's boulevards crisscross Paris, seen from the top of
the Tour Montparnasse.

17. Boulevard
ThethicklinesrepresentHaussmann
boulevard

18. Boulevard
• Haussmann molded the city into a geometric grid,
with new streets running east and west, north and
south, dividing Medieval Paris into new sections. His
plan brought symmetry to the city
• The widening of the streets would relieve the cramped
city and allow for the people to get around more easily.
It also allowed for an increase in height of the buildings,
providing more room for the people of Paris to live and
thrive in. Running alongside the new roads,were rows of
chestnut trees, which allowed Haussmann to maintain
the geometric and symmetrical aesthetic that he had
created with the new roads. And where he struggled to
maintain his visual order, new public spaces and
monuments were erected.

19. Roads andTransport
Streets included in Haussmann’s improvement and
regularization program.White sections of street were built
before 1854, solid black sections before 1870 and dotted
sections after the fall of the Second Empire, but still largely
in accordance with Haussmann’s intentions.The hatched
area indicates the municipality of Paris up to 1860, when
the municipal boundary was extended to the outer
fortification ring.
A map of Haussmann’s streets confusing impression. However, a closer
examination does reveal, if not any superordinate plan, at least a guiding
idea, namely to facilitate communications within the central parts of
Paris and between these areas and the peripheral districts of the city.

20. Washington

21. Location
1
 Country : United states of America
 Approved on: July 16 , 1970
 Named after : George Washington
The District is bordered by, Maryland, to the northwest; Prince George's County, Maryland, to the
east; andArlington and Alexandria,Virginia, to the south and west.

22. 2
Historical background
17th century
Various tribes of the
Algonquian-speaking
Piscataway people
inhabited the lands
January 23, 1788
James Madison argued
the necessity for a
national capital.
July 16, 1790
Foundation of the
DistrictCapital
August 24–25, 1814
TheCivilWar and Raid
known as the Burning of
Washington
Organic Act of 1871
individual charters of the cities
of Washington and
Georgetown, and created a
new territorial government for
the whole District of Columbia.
Early 1900
Washington was the first city in
the nation to undergo urban
renewal projects as part of the
"City Beautiful movement"April 4, 1968
The assassination of civil rights
leader Dr. Martin Luther King,
broke riots in the district
1973
Congress enacted the District
of Columbia Home Rule Act

23. Geography Natural resources
 Washington, D.C., is located in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. East Coast. Due to the
District of Columbia retrocession, the city has a total area of 68.3 square miles (177 km2), of
which 61.4 square miles (159 km2) is land and 6.9 square miles (18 km2) (10.16%) is water .
 The Potomac River forms the District's border withVirginia and has two major tributaries: the
Anacostia River and Rock Creek.
 Tiber Creek, a natural watercourse that once passed through the National Mall, was fully
enclosed underground during the 1870s.The creek also formed a portion of the now-filled
Washington City Canal, which allowed passage through the city to theAnacostia River from
1815 until the 1850s.
 The Chesapeake andOhio Canal starts in Georgetown and was used during the 19th century to
bypass the Great Falls of the Potomac River, located upstream (northwest) ofWashington at
theAtlantic Seaboard fall line.
 The highest natural elevation in the District is 409 feet (125 m) above sea level at Fort Reno
Park in upper northwest Washington.The lowest point is sea level at the Potomac River.The
geographic centre of Washington is near the intersection of 4th and L Streets NW.
 The District has 7,464 acres (30.21 km2) of parkland, about 19% of the city's total area and the
second-highest percentage among high-density U.S. cities.
5

24. 9
Architecturalcharacter
Washington is made up of five types
of building blocks, the party- wall office
building, the row home, the dethatched
bungalow, the neo- classical institution,
and the urban villa.
Each makes a distinctive type of block
and fabric.The attached buildings have
givenWashington the necessary density
to make it second only to Manhattan in
terms of jobs located in its urban center.
The neoclassical institution and urban
villas serve a symbolic purpose
idealizing the democratic values the
new nation proported to embody.
The detatched home was a typical
trend in suburban development in
this country as residential
neighbourhoods attempted to maintain
a pastoral ideal while remaining in close
proximity to the urban economy. A
reliable public transit infrastructure has
made these neighbourhoods some of
the most desirable in the district.
The party wall office
building maximizes
the real estate in downtown
Washington. Building
heights are limited to 135
feet (40.5m). Office buildings
typically have retail on the
first floor in addtion to
lobbies.
The party wall rowhome
was the traditional housing
stock of Washington
throughout the Eighteenth
and Nineteenth Centuries.
Though heights varied,
many had basement
apartments with seperate
entry.
The detatched house was
introduced in
the outskirts of the District in the
early Twentieth Century.
Originally laid out in traditional
blocks with similar setbacks, the
block gave way to the suburban
serpentine street system typical of
the mid and late Twentieth
Century. This building type does
not occur within the section of the
city planned by L’Enfant.
Demand for stately space in
the Capital
drove the development of
Urban Villas, which were
detached buildings with a
processional entramce. Often
housing either diplomatic or
charitable functions, these are
most prevelant on 16th Street
and Embassy Row along
Wisconsin Avenue.

25. The L’Enfant and Ellicott Plans
At the request of GeorgeWashington, Pierre L'Enfant, a French volunteer in the continental army,
presented a baroque city plan for the new capital inspired by French city planning, particularly the plan of
cantaloupe.The city is oriented north along 16 th street and bounded by the Potomac andAnacostia rivers
and boundary street, which follows the base of the piedmont escarpment.
Thomas Jefferson was able to persuade the Congress to grant a Southern site for the new Capital, but lost
out on both his own plan for the new city as well as a design for the Capitol building submitted
anonymously. Notoriously difficult to work with, L’Enfant, despiteWashington’s favor, was eventually
dismissed from the project and the final plan for the city was based on surveys conducted byAndrew
Ellicott with modifications made by Jefferson, which shifted and straightened Massachusetts and
PennsylvaniaAvenues as well as eliminating the destination quality of the reservations L’Enfant had set
aside for “Statues, Columns,Obelisks, or any other ornaments such as the different states may choose to
erect.”
Jefferson’s Plan
Shown in the same scale as the L’Enfant plan, Jefferson’s plan was the first of a long discourse over what
the identity of the Capital would be, urban or pastoral. Jefferson’s plan would have been a series of 600 x
600 ft blocks, anchored on either end by governmental buildings.
10
Evolution of planning 1791-1800

26. 10
Evolution of planning 1860

27. 10
Evolution of planning 1800- 1860
Bird’s-EyeView of the City ofWashington, D.C. and the Seat ofWar inVirginia
City ofWashington from Beyond the NavyYard
From the perspective on the other side of the Anacostia River, one can see the Capitol, the buildings along
PennsylvaniaAvenue, and theWhite House in 1834.
Mall featured serpentine paths through pastoral plantings of trees and past irregularly shaped water
features.
This Bird’s-Eye drawing looking south shows the emergence of the Mall as a civic space by 1860.
Englishman James Smithson’s bequest to the United States for a national museum prompted deliberate
consideration on how to treat the Mall.
During this period, the Capitol Dome expansion, utilizing new steel structural technology, began, as did
construction of Robert Mill’sWashington Monument.
Most of the development came in the form of Governmental buildings, though a dry-dock is visible in the
foreground.
Andrew Jackson Downing, at the request of Millard Fillmore, produced a plan for the Mall and the parks
north and south of theWhite House. Downing’s work exemplifiesthe “natural landscape” trend of the
time, heavily influencedby Cambridge’s Mt.AuburnCemetery and pastoral notions of the young nation.
In opposition to L’Enfant’s geometric plan for the city, Downing’s

28. 10
Evolution of planning 1900

29. 10
Evolution of planning 1860-1900
Our NationalCapital,View from the South
This Bird’s-eye view to the North shows the development of the Mall and the neighborhood between it and
PennsyvaniaAvenue, considered one of the most dangerous and squalid in the city.
In the years after the CivilWar,Washington engaged in a massive public work program to upgrade the
infrastructure needed to maintain hygeine in a tropical area.The influx of workers and free blacks to the
city increased the population and spurred growth of the city.
The investment in governmental buildings earlier in the Century was now paying out as the city grew up
around them through private means.
Olmstead,Sr. Plan for the Capitol Grounds
DespiteWashington’s emergence as an urban center, Olmstead’s plan for the Capitol Grounds to
a distictively pastoral approach and was a precursor to the McMillan commission plan for the entire Federal
Area.

30. 10
Evolution of planning 1940
Figure Ground, 1940
The impact of the McMillan plan was
immediate, as evidenced in the figure
ground.The neighborhood between the
Mall and PennsylvaniaAvenue was
cleared and claimed for governmental
functions.The Lincoln Memorial now
anchors the Mall on theWest, facing the
Capitol, which now has a sight-line with
the Daniel Burnham-designedUnion
Station to its Northeast.The comb-
looking structures on the Mall were
temporary housing units set up for
military use.

31. 10
Evolution of planning 1900-1940
Perspective and Plan for McMillan Plan
The McMillan Plan envisioned a Federal District set apart from the rest of the city based on City Beautiful
premises. Emphasis was placed on unifying the Mall and claiming the area between PennsylvaniaAvenue
and the Mall for Federal business.The Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials would form new end-points for the
civic structure.
The Mall as envisioned by the McMillan Commission is pretty much as it is today.The area on either side of
the Mall is strictly for Federal uses and the Mall itself is home to the Smithsonian Museums and any
number of monuments.
The combination of the McMillan improvements, FDR’s expansion of the Federal Government, and the
impendingWar led to a rapid increase of population by 1940.

32.  The design for the city ofWashington was largely the work of Pierre (peter) Charles L'Enfant, a
French-born architect, engineer, and city planner.
 The plan for Washington dc was modelled in the baroque style and incorporated avenues
radiating out from rectangles, providing room for open space and landscaping.
 L'Enfant's design also envisioned a garden-lined "grand avenue" that is now the national mall
 By the start of the 20th century, L'Enfant's vision of a capital with open parks and grand
national monuments had become marred by slums and randomly placed buildings, including a
railroad station on the national mall
 It was reworked which included the re-landscaping of the capitol grounds and the mall,
constructing new federal buildings and monuments, clearing slums, and establishing a new
citywide park system.
 Heights of buildings act passed to restrict building height to the width of the adjacent street
plus 20 feet (6.1 m)
 Today the skyline remains low and sprawling, in keeping withThomas Jefferson's wishes to
makeWashington an "American Paris" with "low and convenient" buildings on "light and airy"
streets
 However, Washington's height restriction has been assailed as a primary reason why the city
has limited affordable housing and traffic problems as a result of urban sprawl
11
Planning principles

33. 12
Zoning
Theplanningbeganwithprincipleof
buildingsandsquares
Hedividedlinesofdirectcommunication
topromotetrafficbetweenthesecardinal
points
Theplanwasdividedintotwoaxes
intersectingatrightangles,eachwithits
ownfocus-thewhitehouseandcapital
onthemainaxisisthecapitalandonthe
secondaryaxisisthewhitehouse
Hemadethepresidentshouse,thecentre
of7radiatingboulevards.

34. Atypeofroad,aboulevardisusuallya
wide,multilanearterialthoroughfare,
dividedwithamediandownthecentre,
androadwaysalongeachsidedesigned
asslowtravelandparkinglanesandfor
bicycleandpedestrianusage,oftenwith
anabove-averagequalityof
landscapingandscenery
Forconvenienceandpleasantprospect
thecitywasplannedlikeaspiderweb.
Thediagonalscutthroughthisweb.
Thispatternthusprovidesstarshaped
pointsfromwhichboulevardsradiate.
Boulevard

35. 13
Road and Transport
Thedistrictisdividedinto
fourquadrantsofunequal
area:northwest(nw),northeast
(ne),southeast(se),andsouthwest(SW).
Theaxesboundingthequadrantsradiate
fromtheU.S.capitolbuilding.
Allroadnamesincludethequadrant
abbreviationtoindicatetheirlocation,
andhousenumbersareassignedbased
ontheapproximatenumberofblocks
awayfromthecapitol.
Scott Circle
Scott Circle is a less successful example of one of L’Enfant’s
reservations. The space is framed with large- footprint office
buildings that have little ground-floor articulation. As such, the
space is not activated with people and serves primarily as a traffic
circle.
Parque De Las Ratas
Locally know as Rat Park, the intersection of Sixteenth Street, Harvard, and
Columbia Road falls outside of L’Enfant’s plan and is an example of the use of
residual space at the intersection of late Nineteenth Century residential
developments for urban purposes. Framed by large-footprint apartment
buildings and churches, the park is an amenity for the surrounding
neighborhoods.

36. 13
Road and Transport
L’Enfant conceived of the Mall asThe
Grand Avenue, with a width of 400
feet. Streets “leading to public buildings
or markets” were to be 130 feet and
“others” were to be either 110 or 90 feet
in width.
L’Enfant also planned for reservations
of space at key intersections and
established a Neo- Classical program of
siting buildings or other monuments in
these spaces
Such wide streets and numerous
spaces, combined with the height limit
of buildings inWashington give the
public space a particular character.The
city is bright and open. Furthermore,
the building setbacks provide space for
trees and gardens which are in
abundance in the city.
This character continues beyond the
original area of the city, and while the
grid and diagonal system of streets
breaks down north of FloridaAvenue,
the commitment to openess and green
continues.
Pennsylvania Avenue, 1857. AOC

37. CivicStructure
L’Enfant’s Plan for
Washington, 1791.
highlights by FugateWashington’s civic structure was
envisioned by L’Enfant as a series of sight-
reciprocal squares, fountains, and wide
diagonal avenues anchored by a Grand
Avenue, “400 feet in breadth, and about a
mile in length, boardered with gardens,
ending in a slope from the houses on each
side” and “communication” from the
President’s house and the Congress
house, present-day PennsylvaniaAvenue.
The skeleton of L’Enfants civic structure
remains, though the original triangle has
been extended into a cruciform with the
reclamation of theTidal Basin, and the
Smithsonian Museums occupy the place
of the houses along what is now now as
the National Mall. Other than DuPont
Circle, the importance of the Squares as
part of the civic structure has never been
realized, nor L’Enfant’s intention that
downtown develop east of the Capitol.
Modern-Day Washington,
1991. montage of Thadana and
Passeneau

38. 15
DuPont circle isWashington'sbest
example of how L'Enfant's reservations
and squares could work.A vibrant park
and traffic rotary combined, the circle
is at the intersection of three major
diagonal avenues and the centre of the
DuPont circle neighbourhood, a mix
Of commercial, retail, and residential
uses.The space of the circle is
delineated by corner buildings, streets,
medians, and trees.
Massachusetts Avenue
Massachusetts avenue is one of
L'Enfant's planned “grand traverse
avenues”, set out at 160 feet side, with
80 feet of carriage way and 80 feet of
trees and pedestrian way. Buildings in
Washingtonare limited to 135 feet and
share party walls.Along Massachusetts
avenue, they frame
The space, which is further delineated
by setbacks, landscaping, trees, and a
parking lane.
Q Street
Q Street is representative of one of L’Enfant’s “other” streets, laid out
at either 90 or 110 feet. Residential in nature, Q street’s buildings are
traditionally three or four story rowhomes. Frontyard setbacks, trees,
and a parking lane divide the space.
Q
Street
DuPon
t
Circle
Dupont Circle
Eighteenth
Street
Nineteenth
Street
Peculiar characterof city