Before Renaissance: Planning in Pittsburgh, 1889-1943

by John F. Bauman, Edward K. Muller

Before Renaissance examines a half-century epoch during which planners, public officials, and civic leaders engaged in a dialogue about the meaning of planning and its application for improving life in Pittsburgh. Planning emerged from the concerns of progressive reformers and businessmen over the social and physical problems of the city. In the Steel City enlightened planners such as Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., and Frederick Bigger pioneered the practical approach to reordering the chaotic urban-industrial landscape. In the face of obstacles that included the embedded tradition of privatism, rugged topography, inherited built environment, and chronic political fragmentation, they established a tradition of modern planning in Pittsburgh. Over the years a mélange of other distinguished local and national figures joined in the planning dialogue, among them the park founder Edward Bigelow, political bosses Christopher Magee and William Flinn, mayors George Guthrie and William Magee, industrialists Andrew Carnegie and Howard Heinz, financier Richard King Mellon, and planning luminaries Charles Mulford Robinson, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., Harland Bartholomew, Robert Moses, and Pittsburgh’s Frederick Bigger. The famed alliance of Richard King Mellon and Mayor David Lawrence, which heralded the Renaissance, owed a great debt to Pittsburgh’s prior planning experience. John Bauman and Edward Muller recount the city’s long tradition of public/private partnerships as an important factor in the pursuit of orderly and stable urban growth. Before Renaissance provides insights into the major themes, benchmarks, successes, and limitations that marked the formative days of urban planning. It defines Pittsburgh’s key role in the vanguard of the national movement and reveals the individuals and processes that impacted the physical shape and form of a city for generations to come.

Genres: Urban

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Frank Stein · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very solid study on the pre-history of the famed "Pittsburgh Renaissance," the downtown revival that temporarily staved off the city's decline after World War II. Bauman shows that most of the features of the Renaissance had been in the planning works for at least 30 years before ground was broken. He also shows that Pittsburgh was, long before the Renaissance, both a prototypical example of Progressive-era city planning and, at least sometimes, a planning innovator. It hired Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., Frank Lloyd Wright, Bion J. Arnold, and even Robert Moses to create some truly innovative city plans in the early part of the century.

Perhaps Bauman's main service though is to refocus attention on the career of Frederick Bigger, the Pittsburgh-born architect who headed the local planning board as well as the AIA's "Community Planning Committee" (succeeding former heads Wright and Stein). He was also a charter member of the American City Planning Institute when it was created in 1917, the chief designer of Roosevelt's Greenbelt program, and a prominent member of the Regional Planning Association (RPA). He has been unnecessarily ignored in the typical planning histories.

Unfortunately Bigger often comes off in this book as a pointless obstructionist, one who demanded bureaucratic kow-towing to his "comprehensive" plan and tried to block anything that didn't fit his rigid conception of what the city could be. One interesting story is the "mini-golf war" he sparked during the Depression, when he blocked all zoning changes attempting to allow for mini-golf on abandoned lots and incurred the wrath of local landowners and the city council.

Ultimately, as for many 1910s and 1920s-era planners, Bigger's main projects remained on paper, and so much of this book deals only with speculative plans that were not carried out for years if ever.

Bauman, however, still does a great job chronicling the battles over everything from the "Exposition Hall" (an early convention center) to the waterfront promenades to the Lincoln Highway extension.

[Chuck Alcorn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great history of early planning efforts in Pittsburgh.