Levittown Experiment Essay

This image taught me the structural layout of all the houses in Pullman. Though not very spacious, was still very modest in my

Davidson begins his article with arguably one of the most notable and recent subjects of gentrification, 1520 Sedgwick, the birthplace of Hip-Hop. This dilapidated apartment building’s owners “announced they planned to leave New York State’s Mitchell-Lama programe” (pg. 2), which would result in the current residents evictions. Essentially the program offered tax incentives to building owners who limit equity to maintain low cost units. However, in lieu of tax incentives many building owners have elected to leave the program in order to make more profit via higher costing units, which current residents cannot afford. In the case of 1520 Sedgwick current and former residents, such as the credited father of Hip-Hop Kool Herc, have veiled their mission to prevent the gentrification process from consuming their building by petitioning for a historic listing as well as offering to

To judge the success or failure of Blumberg Apartments, we must first analyze the project as it works to provide good housing. Good housing should not just be regarded as a noun, it should also encompass housing as a verb. The commodity of the house as a shelter is the noun. This commodity should provide a place for redressing. It should hold the essential necessities that make for a comfortable and complete home. A place that balances privacy and social interactions. As a verb, good housing should be a utility that works to enhance one’s life (Turner, 1972). It should be a stepping stone towards opportunity. For Blumberg Apartments in the grand scheme, both of these facets can be regarded as failures. As the housing projects suffered through massive deterioration, it failed as a commodity. Residents described how their housing had “stairwells that reeked of urine and dirty diapers, constantly breaking appliances and elevators, and the frequent sounds of gunshots” (Colaneri, 2016). Furthermore, units were found to not meet minimum size standards and

Chicago’s notorious reputation for crime-ridden, poor quality public housing is a direct result of public policy during the reign of former mayor Richard J. Daley. Instead of using public housing to give lower income families a decent place to live, as was the intent of most public housing at the time, it was used to segregate blacks by concentrating them into certain parts of the city. Cabrini-Green was obviously one of these places. The architecture of Cabrini-Green also played a part in the inevitable doom of the project. City officials realized that the renowned architect LeCorbusier’s “island in the sky” concept of urban community, where giant high-rises grew out of the ground with enormous green space in between them, would be good for public housing. In reality, the green space separated the projects from the rest of the city, concentrating slums into ugly concrete structures that quickly fell into disrepair, resulting in “hulking high-rises in poor black neighborhoods.” Also, 95% of those living in public housing in

The chapter of this book takes us on a tour of our government and housing policies through the twentieth century and how they affected our lives. The first time the American government started intervening with housing was in 1918 when Congress gave 110 million for two programs for housing war workers. Some people, like Senator William Calder of New York, felt that the government was not made to build houses and saw early housing acts like these as opposite to what the government should be doing with it 's power. Despite these feelings

Students will carefully observe acts of aggression and prosocial behavior on television, report their observations, and analyze their data to draw conclusions.

The way how African Americans were treated during the 1950’s didn’t show prosperity due to the fact that whites had the upper hand in most cases. With the practice of African Americans purchasing affordable housing is a prime example of how the government used discrimination as a way to create racial discrimination between whites and blacks. For example in Document 1 it goes onto explain how local governments passed laws to prevent any new construction of single family homes to preserve white communities. With this it would have a corroboration with the Levittown because the town did not sell to African Americans but mostly to the white & middle class;

After WW2 ended, a housing shortage followed, partly since veterans were home and partly because of the high birth rates that occurred after the war. Many Americans were living with their parents, or in unsuitable conditions for themselves and their families. Levittown was a dream come true for many who were struggling. Not only were houses being built, but they were being built fast and were affordable for most of those in need. The houses were manufactured using 27 steps in which

Chicago from the1920s through the 1940s was the melting pot of America, with its multitude of vastly different people and different types of housing and living conditions. Around the early 1920s in Chicago, 80 percent of the undeveloped city were immigrants from Europe and their children. A majority of the houses in Chicago in the 1920s were set up to improve immigrants’ living conditions. These houses were often large complexes in which immigrants lived together in and were provided meals and tutoring in English. After World War I ended in 1918, many people moved from small rural communities in the Midwest to Chicago. This resulted in the construction of many large apartment buildings in place of old townhouses. In large cities like Chicago,

It is often easy to castigate large cities or third world countries as failures in the field of affordable housing, yet the crisis, like an invisible cancer, manifests itself in many forms, plaguing both urban and suburban areas. Reformers have wrestled passionately with the issue for centuries, revealing the severity of the situation in an attempt for change, while politicians have only responded with band aid solutions. Unfortunately, the housing crisis easily fades from our memory, replaced by visions of homeless vets, or starving children. Metropolis magazine explains that “…though billions of dollars are spent each year on housing and development programs worldwide, ? At least 1 billion people

Levitt and Sons needed to find building solutions that would suit the taste of their buyers, would be cost efficient thus resulting in an inexpensive price, and could be produced rapidly and in high yield. To solve this challenge Levitt and Sons designed a single level, four-room home based on the traditional American Cape Cod style.7 This simple design was modified to form four basic designs that were to be replicated. To produce the homes as quickly as possible Levitt and Sons based their construction strategy on the automobile assembly line of Henry Ford. Instead of moving the parts down an assembly line, Levitt and Sons move the labor along the product line.8 This method, along with the incorporation of off-the-shelf products, allowed for the rapid production of homes. The money and time saved on production and design allowed homes to sell at a lower price. These small homes

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.

The mixture of buildings of different conditions are necessary to public life because it otherwise would be neither interesting nor fascinating. But the main reasons are because they ensure low rent yields, encouraging the growth of small enterprises. Large swatches of new construction would only prevent income since not many would afford it, and the demand for it would not be as large as it would need to be.

Question 1. Choose an architect or practice whose work is covered by or relevant to this course and discuss critically one or more of their design projects or drawings or urban proposals as precedent case-studies. Selectively situate this work in relation to their body of work, and against the practices and concerns of the period. Focus on the architectural qualities of a specific key aspect of the design of the projects. Selectively consider how they might relate to the historical situation, cultural values, theoretical concerns and design practices of the time. This may involve a selective analysis of compositional design practices, material fabrication production and the experiential reception of built outcomes of the projects.

The lack of housing access was a serious problem, hence the government undertakes mulitple measures to tackle the massive housing shortage inherited from the colonial government to ensure that all of its citizens had access to affordable housing.[1]