Have urban planners mucked up?

If you flyover cities across this planet at 1,000 meters & you discover that the best parts of our towns are the older/more central parts & the new bits called suburbs are horrible, you are forgiven if you think urban planners have mucked up.

Old Quebec City

Merivale road Ottawa

Here’s the thing: If you perform a thought experiment (as Albert Einstein termed them) like this and the only major difference between the way we built cities in the 1950s (and earlier) when most urban design was in the hands and care and control of architects (who actually know something about design, beauty, scale, proportion, delight and utility) and after that when urban planners took over, then you might be justified in thinking urban planners and their prescriptive zoning codes and official plans are the primary cause of urban sprawl and poorly articulated places and spaces.

As a former professor at Carleton University’s Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism, I also blame architects for allowing urban planners to overtake them in this crucial field.

Prof Bruce

Bruce M Firestone, B Eng (civil), M Eng-Sci, PhD, Ottawa Senators founder, Real Estate Investment and Business coach, ROYAL LePAGE Performance Realty broker, 1-613-762-8884 bruce.firestone@century21.ca twitter.com/ProfBruce profbruce.tumblr.com/archive brucemfirestone.com

MAKING IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE