Historic Case Studies

Planning Sustainability

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Planning & Sustainability

Historic Case Studies

Barcelona	Edinburgh	Glasgow
Kyoto	Philadelphia	Savannah

Like any other city, Portland has its share of planning, urban design and development challenges. Although each city has its own unique political, institutional and cultural landscape, we can learn and be inspired by how other cities over time have creatively addressed common issues.

These pages examine how the urban design of six cities with characteristics comparable to Portland have evolved. The study reveals a number of relevant urban design approaches which range from strong connections across the river to integration of industrial heritage through urban form, to open space allocations that restore social equity and balance.

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Barcelona

Barcelona’s origin as a port city, its dominant grid pattern, and use of linear open space have generated urban design approaches relevant to Portland.

From its origins as a fortified city in 15 BC, Barcelona evolved into a grid-iron network of streets and blocks. In 1929, a system of avenues, parks, plazas, and exhibition halls transformed its urban structure. The plan sought to distribute open space evenly across all city blocks. The introduction of strategically located new open space has been correcting this persistent imbalance.

Today, Barcelona uses art, open space, and architecture to strengthen key locations throughout the city. The city uses its public space as a powerful design tool by creating landmarks with public art, establishing neighborhood identity, encouraging social mixing, and encouraging the highest level of design in the most deficient neighborhoods.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh’s original urban structure of a town nested between hills and a river relates it closely to Portland.

Originally a castle town with a fortress located at the top of a hill and town below, Edinburgh was expanded along its east-west axis. In the late 1700s, elongated blocks were laid out north of its major axis along which monuments and open space were also oriented. Later additions emphasized vistas over the grid structure. These changes have helped create prominent and popular public spaces.

Edinburgh continues to use its history, topography and natural amenities as design tools to help organize space. While its topography helps define urban form and views, the city’s grid allows open space to become a major organizing element. Edinburgh’s strong commitment to heritage sites and creative industries has made it a destination for tourism and international business.

Glasgow

Like Portland, Glasgow’s original settlement was defined by its relationship to the river Molendinar Burn.

Industrialization led to the city’s expansion, and an adaptable grid-iron pattern allowed for democratic and efficient allocation of space. Originally separated from the town center by the river, industrial development along the south bank (the Gorbels) has now been integrated, tying both river banks together. This has been accomplished by transforming much of the city’s industrial infrastructure into world-class museums, performance halls, and sports arenas.

Relevant urban design strategies include: strengthening connections to the river, integrating industrial heritage into the city form through adaptive reuse, and reinforcing the existing urban fabric with strategic redevelopment.

Kyoto

The historic part of Kyoto was selected because of its adaptive street grid system. Using a base grid, Historic Kyoto’s urban form has either subdivided into a finer urban grain or combined to accommodate larger urban needs.

Originally laid out in 794 by Emperor Kammu using Chinese geomancy, historic Kyoto’s urban structure sought to balance relationships between its valley, the rolling mountains, and its rivers. Only primary shrines and the street grid remained after the original city was destroyed during the Onin War. Kyoto subsequently reinvented itself as an industrial city.

To alleviate related growth, Kyoto has created local public spaces and planned transit stations as its key activity areas. In actively preserving its cultural assets, Kyoto’s urban design approach is strongly social and community oriented. Its planning philosophy focuses on a healthy environment through conservation, renewal, and creation and as a productive, creative culture. It addresses its physical environment through guidelines that preserve and promote heritage architecture and streetscape design, height restrictions on new construction, and by allowing the grid to continue to shift in size to accommodate changing needs.

Philadelphia

As a city defined by a street grid and open space system between two rivers, Philadelphia’s urban structure is an example of how formal organization of urban form can build urban clarity and identity.

Commissioned by William Penn in 1682, Thomas Holme laid out Philadelphia with its City Hall at the center of two primary axes. As the city grew in size and importance, the grid expanded to emphasize and celebrate its culture and history. A diagonal promenade (Benjamin Franklin Parkway) stretches from city hall northeasterly to a prominent art museum thus breaking up the street grid’s monotony.

Philadelphia has relied on its grid pattern to be an effective development framework. It continues to adapt its formal urban structure through urban design strategies that include an emphasis on civic structures and historic elements, retention of its historic grid and park layout, and enhancing its axial corridors.

Savannah

Savannah is a city that has expanded its original historic grid and open space system to build identity through repetition and persistent urban scale.

First laid out on the banks of the Savannah River by James Olgethorpe in 1733, Savannah’s urban structure consisted of a rectangular layout of 12 blocks with 24 public squares placed at regular intervals, thus equally distributing open space. By expanding and replicating this modular form using local urban design vocabulary, the city has retained its historic heritage and feel.

This approach has kept Savannah’s rich urban and natural texture. Urban design principles continue to reinforce this through continued investment and promotion of historic districts as public assets. A strong local preservation movement has successfully capitalized the city’s historic architecture and pedestrian scale of movement.

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