Citation:
Arkaraprasertkul N. Toward Modernist Urban Design: Louis Kahn's Plan for Central Philadelphia. Journal of Urban Design [Internet]. 2008;13(2):177-194.
Abstract:
By re-visiting Louis Kahn's urban design plan for Central Philadelphia in the 1950s, this paper explores the history and controversy of one of the most provocative modernist urban design ideas through the debate between architect Kahn and planner Edmund Bacon. While Bacon was a trained planner who represented the economic needs of the public realm, Kahn was an architect who advocated for the powerful form and the system of movement at large. This paper presents a methodological search for the distinctive characteristics of Kahn's plan that might have made it practical for Philadelphia—the idea of the city of flow and the monumental civic centre.