The Influence Of Haussmann On The City Of Paris

As part of our final report we are expected to select a planning issue within the City of Boston and undertake an analysis of the issue from a planning perspective. An issue that the City of Boston is dealing with that caught my attention was the lack of affordable housing available to its current and future residents. As cities start to evolve and attract large amounts of people, they also face some drawbacks that can affect where and how city residents can live. Our trip to Boston, Massachusetts opened my eyes to the city’s housing issue and its increasing housing and land values. An issue of this nature often causes residents to be pushed out of the city, into the suburbs or can cause homelessness. Low to moderate income families and youth across the City of Boston are struggling to pay rent and make ends meet. After our meeting with the Boston Housing Authority, I wanted to further explore the issue of housing affordability so I reached out to the City’s Department of Neighborhood Development for more information This paper will look into some topics such as when housing became an issue in the city, if Boston’s student population plays a role, if there any shortcomings in terms of how the city plans for affordable housing, if there are any specific programs in place that deal with affordable housing and if Boston is looking into what other cities may be doing.

In the middle of Napoleon III's reign, the transformation of Paris began. He commissioned Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann to renovate the city between 1852 and 1870. Baron Haussmann received a lot of criticism for his redesign of Paris and it unfortunately led to his downfall in 1870. However should one see Haussmann as the saviour or destroyer of Paris?

Well known in cities at the time were the City Beautiful movement and the city practical, however, social issues were merely pushed to the side. Wirka (1996) explains that “both are undoubtedly important movements in the history of planning” (p. 57), however, she goes on

This created overcrowding, disease, and the need to build more shelters to accommodate everyone. This in part, was the reason cities such as Manchester grew so large. However, the living conditions of urban cities in Europe were utterly abysmal. Disease ran amok in the streets, infecting people quite easily. For example, the city of Paris had narrow streets and buildings practically stacked on top of one of each other, leading to the same problems that most European cities at the time had. According to Edwin Chadwick, public health reformer who authored Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Laboring Population of Great Britain, “Diseases caused or aggravated by atmospheric impurities produced by decomposing animal and vegetable substances, by damp and filth, and close and overcrowded dwellings, prevail among the laboring classes.” In this statement, Chadwick encompassed just about every problem with these large urban areas. He also provided the effects of the problems associated with the horrid living conditions, for instance the effect of education would be much more “temporary”, and the population would not be as influenced by morality. Edwin Chadwick was a socialist, which should definitely tip the reader

During the nineteenth century, Paris further developed into the entertainment capital of the world. Alistair Horne, the author of the Seven Ages of Paris, vividly illustrates several historical moments that occurred in Paris. Through the horrors and triumphs, Paris was able to endure through it all for ages and still emerge greater than before. In comparison, Vanessa R. Schwartz, the author of Spectacular Realities: Early Mass Culture in Fin-de-siècle, demonstrates how the explosive popularity of the boulevard, the newspapers, wax museums, panoramas, and early cinema led to the creation of a new culture in Paris. Driven by consumerism, a cultural revolution was happening, who’s new culture transcended gender and class divisions. Both authors

Cities are characterized by the patterns of streets and squares that define their arrangement, a concept that undergoes frequent changes since the establishment of cities 10,000 years ago. There are multitude factors that influence such changes with system of government, values, population size, values, artistic sensibility, building methods, design techniques, paving techniques, military considerations, and transport technology being the main determinants. Medieval architectural designs emphasized on rigid grid forms, that contemporary writers of the history of urban planning and design, assume the presence of grids even in plans where they exist in approximate forms. Absence of grids is often perceived as lack of planning. Nevertheless, it is critical to note that the complex patters of streets in medieval cities were neither random nor chaotic.

The environment in which people live in demonstrates the societal norms and values of said culture. In Émile Zola’s The Belly of Paris, Florent, a political outcast, returns to Paris only to find that the regime has drastically changed. Napoleon III, a self-elected emperor, has torn down many of the streets of Old Paris to make room for the angular and orderly streets of New Paris as well as the new markets of Les Halles. Throughout the novel, the character’s lives revolve around the various markets in Les Halles and the streets of Paris. Zola uses descriptions of architecture and city planning as well as how people use space within Paris to demonstrate the city’s corruption, signifying that the architecture of a city is a reflection of

Paris as the City of Light, or the “modern” Paris, emerged in the mid 19th century as the demolition of “Old Paris” by Prefect Haussmann paved the way for the urban renewal program set out by the Emperor Napoleon III. New streets, sewers, and parks, and new town halls, hospitals, and schools were all created at this time. Not all were admired though. In fact, some Parisians grew angry that the historic core of Paris was lost in these bold projects. Lights throughout Paris evolved over the 19th century as well. Candle-lit lanterns that once lit the city became oil-burning lamps. It wasn’t until the year 1900 that Paris was illuminated by electric lighting, and formally became known as “Ville Lumière.” Main monumental spaces such as the Palais de l’Électricité, the Eiffel Tower, and even the new central wide boulevards were illuminated with these lights. Paris displayed the pleasures of the city to visitors who came to experience it, however, it also divided Parisians on the basis that the city’s traditions and memories were destroyed. Despite being called the most cosmopolitan city in the world by Baedeker, its history left out the dark side of it all. Paris was desolated of its historic memories and its traditional morals. However, renovations did bring sunlight and air into the historically beloved unhealthy, cramped streets. Ultimately, this image of Paris is all about its visually appealing aesthetics and does not mention what a true Parisian, in the center-periphery or banlieues, for example, would vision.

Imagine a city where no green space can be found. Where concrete and steel buildings rise up and block the sun. Where streets are chaotic and gridlocked and citizens are stuffed in cramped, dirty and unsanitary apartments. This was the world of 19th-century cities where human health and happiness were disregarded for economic gain. These horrid conditions shaped the lives and ideas of three very influential men: Ebenezer Howard, Le Corbusier, and Frank Lloyd Wright. They took their own experiences and redesigned the sprawling metropolis to improve the lives of the residents. Each man created urban utopias that included green spaces, farms, and parks to improve air quality and the livelihoods of the people. Despite theses similar views, each design differed from the others. Howard, Le Corbusier, and Wright all completely reimagined the urban city in differing ways based on scale, distribution of land and technology. Their design concepts have been adapted across the globe and implemented into modern urban planning everywhere.

His first comprehensive city plan was La Ville Contemporaine (the Contemporary City) a project to house three million inhabitants designed in 1922. This was Le Corbusier’s first attempt to reconcile man, nature and machine (Fishman, 189). The city starts at the center with a transportation hub for busses, trains, cars and planes. Surrounding this hub there will be an organized cluster of 24 60-story skyscrapers. These glass and steel skyscrapers are cross-shaped. Each individual skyscraper is to be set within a large rectangular green space. The skyscrapers house the “brain” of the city. The city is beautifully geometric and symmetrical. Placing the skyscrapers in the city center reinforces the emphasis on capital as a means of creating a successful city. Because of the shape and mass of each skyscraper, they have more usable space than an entire neighborhood but also relieves density and congestion because of the organization (Frampton, 46).

As a result of a booming development of the nineteenth century city, “progressive” architects of the time started to deliberate and conceive opinions to create long term solutions. Known for his radical cultural manifestos, Le Corbusier is one of the architects that epitomizes the change in ideal of the Machine Age. He introduced ideas of living in completely analogous, planned, designed, and then built, cities. Le Corbusier 's proposition for the City of Tomorrow had in its roots the intention of creating a series of fundamental principles that would become the skeleton of any modern city plan. However, considerations that were not applied during that period of time, are the cause of its unsuccessful development.

An emerging issue is that of urban sprawl. While some aspects of urban sprawl has been seen since ancient times, this phenomenon has started gaining the most momentum in the past century, aided by the advancement of technology, especially with the rise of mass produced automobiles, houses and highway systems. Many people unknowingly contribute to this environmental problem, as is the nature of it. Urban sprawl deals with the growth of the suburbs, the area between the urban and rural areas of a city. Most of America’s largest cities and states, in terms of population, are prime examples of urban sprawl. Opponents of urban sprawl usually cite the government as a major cause of sprawl. The government may be a major catalyst of

Post-revolutionary Paris should be an entirely different society than pre-revolutionary Paris. In many ways it is, but the result remains the same: the innocent man is still “proven” guilty. The common people have the power now, but that power does not result in good reasoning. In the socialistic society of Paris, there are two ways to rule. In the first way, the people rule themselves with a mob-like mentality. In the second a ruling elite rises to the top by taking a populist approach and manipulating the people. A

It was one of the largest efforts to rebuild the centre of a city since ancient times. While there was the glamour of the many entertainments in the city, there was also a darker side of poverty, crime and prostitution. "The city - with its pristine exterior, its soiled underside, its hollow entertainments - provided the makings of an enormous duality: a two-sided mirror...a spectacle and secret life." (Bromber 1996: 62) One of the key parts to this design by Haussmann were the wide tree lined avenues, which replaced the smaller streets that had previously existed in the city. "Haussmann's grand design for the reconstruction of Paris was being carried forward by the Third Republic, and the city was now laced with wide, tree-lined avenues." (Schneider 1972: 134) In fact, the modern city of Paris is based on the city that was built by Haussmann and the modern perception of Paris as being the artistic and cultural centre that it is known for, is chiefly based on Haussman's design and re-modelling of the city.

Designing a city from scratch is a remarkable thought experiment but ultimately fails at implementation because we always approach it from the perspective of “how can we create a new city that solves problems of existing cities.” It’s less a process driven by design and more by critique. Urban living has paved its way into modern society, yet the vision for a city has changed over time. Large settlements need planning to grow; yet differences in minds is what leads to the modifications of a city, in return makes a city so unique. Alterations in opinions are what thrives urban life, still these differences are what skews the view of how others see a city compared to myself. They say the eye of the beholder deems beauty; this could explain