History of Urban Design

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Learning from Savannah.


Savannah was designed to detailed standards that traced back to Roman times.  Today’s architectural scales take their roots from Roman scales (a system of doubles).  Same goes for computer chip design.  If you go to a mall today, even the stores are in the same design format (30 ft. bays, 60 ft. long, double bays are 60 ft.).  A Roman mile was 5,000 ft.

Like I keep saying, if your plan is adaptable and it lasts, it is a great plan.  The principle of the Second Man says that it is the second man that determines whether what you create lasts or is destroyed, and with many of the Roman plans and systems we are on the thousandth man.  I do not see cul de sac suburbs as urban environs lasting for very long and we are already seeing evidence of that.  They don’t age well and aren’t adaptable.

Keep the theme of adaptability and the ability for a place to be retrofitted in mind from now on.

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