Peter Hall – Great Planning Disasters (1980)

Our concept report on Livable Cities was presented to the second meeting of the Philips Think Tank on Livable Cities. One of the feedbacks that our team received was that the report could include more examples of successes and failures in making cities livable. The successes was not such a problem (although the sustainability of success is not always clear), but I had difficulty thinking about the failures.

It made me think of the book published in 1980 by Peter Hall titled "Great Planning Disasters". It analyzed what Peter Hall considered the great planning disasters of the 1970’s. His selection of great disasters included the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sydney’s Opera House. The book analyzes the decisions of the professional bureaucrats, community activists, and politicians involved in the planning process. He draws on an eclectic body of theory from political science, economics, ethics, and long-range future forecasting to suggest ways to forestall such grand mistakes in the future.

Thirty years forward, time has given these projects a more positive place in history. According to Wikipedia, the Sydney Opera House was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007, as one of the most distinctive buildings of the 20^th century. And its despised architect Jorn Utzon received the Pritzker Prize, architecture’s highest honor, in 2003. The Pritzker Prize Citation stated “There is no doubt that the Sydney Opera House is his masterpiece. It is one of the great iconic buildings of the 20th century, an image of great beauty that has become known throughout the world – a symbol for not only a city, but a whole country and continent”. And while the BART-system is not so highly appreciated, it has become to be seen as one of the more successful public transport projects in the USA, and has helped to shape the Bay area into a daily urban system that has been successful and brought prosperity to generations of Bay Area residents.

Does this mean that Sir Peter Hall was wrong? Probably not; his analysis still makes sense, and he is and continues to be one of the best writers on urbanism and urbanization. But it does suggest that success and failure are not easy targets in the history and future of cities.