Greenways and the making of urban form

Walmsley, A., 1995, Greenways and the making of urban form, in: Journal of Urban Design, 33,

  • Author : Walmsley, A.
  • Year : 1995
  • Journal/Series : Journal of Urban Design
  • Volume Number (CONSECUTIVE: Counting all Volumes of this Journal ever published) : 33
  • Pages : 81-127
  • Abstract in English : One aspect of greenways which is exciting popular interest in the US is the durability of nineteenth-century parkways and park systems to stitch together fragmenting cities and urbanizing areas. What Olmsteds, Cleveland, Eliot and Kessler achieved in their regional open-space plans can be the model for a new version of Howard's town in which greenways, greenbelts/greenspaces together make a comprehensive infrastructure. History as well as literature of greenway planning and design in the US is reviewed. It is suggested that greenways are still powerful and persuasive idea around which to structure communities. The historic initiatives of greenway planning and design, which guided and influenced the growth of North American cities in predominantly pre-automobile age, can be rediscovered and reinvented anew for today's decentralizing urban conurbations, multiple movement systems, multi-ultural societies etc. Lynch's open-space counterforms should more and more shape the urban environments of today's mega-cities. Among them, greenways of all scales and categories have e strongly formative and integrative role to play.
  • Comments/Notes : KEYWORDS: greenways, urban planing, multi-use, landscape history, rural landscape, greenbelt, trails. UTILITY: lecturers/teachers, academic research, students of universities of professional education.