Greening the City

by Brantz, Dorothee; Dumpelmann, Sonja

• ISBN13: 9780813931142
• ISBN10: 0813931142
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-07-10
• Publisher: Univ of Virginia Pr

Summary

The modern city is not only pavement and concrete. Parks, gardens, trees, and other plants are an integral part of the urban environment. Often the focal points of social movements and political interests, green spaces represent far more than simply an effort to balance the man-made with the natural. A city's history with--and approach to--its parks and gardens reveals much about its workings and the forces acting upon it. Our green spaces offer a unique and valuable window on the history of city life. The essays in Greening the City span over a century of urban history, moving from fin-de-si#xE8;cle Sofia to green efforts in urban Seattle. The authors present a wide array of cases that speak to global concerns through the local and specific, with topics that include green-space planning in Barcelona and Mexico City, the distinction between public and private nature in Los Angeles, the ecological diversity of West Berlin, and the historical and cultural significance of hybrid spaces designed for sports. The essays collected here will make us think differently about how we study cities, as well as how we live in them. Contributors Dorothee Brantz, Technische Universit#xE4;t Berlin * Peter Clark, University of Helsinki * Lawrence Culver, Utah State University * Konstanze Sylva Domhardt, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich * Sonja D#xFC;mpelmann, University of Maryland * Zachary J. S. Falck, Independent Scholar* Stefanie Hennecke, Technical University Munich * Sonia Hirt, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * Salla Jokela, University of Helsinki * Jens Lachmund, Maastricht University * Gary McDonogh, Bryn Mawr College * Jarmo Saarikivi, University of Helsinki * Jeffrey Craig Sanders, Washington State University

Author Biography

Harold L. Piatt, Loyola University Chicago, author of Shock Cities: The Environmental Transformation and Reform of Manchester and Chicago.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
Constructing Green Urban Spaces
Integrating City and Nature: Urban Planning Debates in Sofia, Bulgaria	p. 17
Green and Modem: Planning Mexico City, 1900-1940	p. 37
Nature and Urban Identity
Mediterranean Reflections: Reconstructing Nature in Modern Barcelona	p. 57
German Ideologies of City and Nature: The Creation and Reception of Schiller Park in Berlin	p. 75
Race, Recreation, and the Conflict between Public and Private Nature in Twentieth-Century Los Angeles	p. 95
The Function of Nature in the City
Nature, Sport, and the European City: London and Helsinki, 1880-2005	p. 115
From the "Functional City" to the "Heart of the City": Green Space and Public Space in the CIAM Debates of 1942-1952	p. 133
Ecology and the Urban Environment
Property Rights, Popular Ecology, and Problems with Wild Plants in Twentieth-Century American Cities	p. 159
Building an "Urban Homestead": Survival, Self-Sufficiency, and Nature in Seattle, 1970-1980	p. 181
The making of an Urban Ecology: Biological Expertise and Wildlife Preservation in West Berlin	p. 204
Notes on Contributors	p. 229
Index	p. 233
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