The New Urbanism: Reviving Cities, Spirits?

Hyman '98 explores attempts to rebuild community

By John Marchetti

Special to the Gazette

Over the past decade, more and more of us have grown alarmed by the decline in civility and civic-mindedness in America. We hear of sagging voter turnouts. We witness phenomena like road rage. We read disturbing accounts of crime and vandalism. And we are left with a sense that something has gone awry at the very core of American society.

Many believe these unwelcome developments stem from a decline in our interpersonal relationships. Simply put, we do not have the opportunity, or the time, to get to know each other. Instead, our fast-paced suburban lifestyles ensure that we'll be surrounded by strangers on the highway, at the supermarket, and even on our own street. A damaging, dehumanizing effect ensues, weakening our communities and our spirits.

Enter New Urbanism, the movement in city planning that tries to recommit traditional town planning designs to a modern context. New Urbanism sees the breakdown of community in our cities and towns as the result of suburban sprawl. It seeks to lessen dependence on automobiles while encouraging a small-world lifestyle where jobs, shops, and homes are near each other. New Urbanists design with community interaction in mind, strategically placing town centers and religious and cultural buildings to foster what they call pedestrianism.

A number of New Urban communities have been built in the past ten years, garnering positive reviews for their innovative designs. However, researchers are just now beginning to investigate what effect those designs have had on the civic health of the communities. Among them is Robert Hyman '98, a social studies concentrator who suspects that there is a gap between theory and practice in the New Urbanism.

With help from the Harvard College Research Program, Hyman has begun a semester of intense research that he hopes will shed new light on the movement. He will present his findings in a thesis this spring.

Says Hyman, "I first learned about the New Urbanism while reading Government Professor Michael Sandel's recent book, Democracy's Discontent," says Hyman.

"I actually didn't start considering it as a thesis topic until I took a class on Frank Lloyd Wright with Fine Arts Professor Neil Levine," he continues, "I wrote a term paper for that course that explored some of the social theory underlying Wright's philosophy. That experience whetted my appetite for thinking more about the interconnectedness of our built environment and our social and political life." Hyman is now working with both Sandel and Levine.

"I've been so extraordinarily fortunate to receive guidance from two giants in their fields," he says. "They are tremendous people and unbelievable advisers. It has been the most rewarding aspect of my research so far."

Hyman's advisers have already helped him with the theoretical framework of his thesis. "Looking at this movement with the perspectives of both political theory and architectural and design theory has underscored the necessity of an interdisciplinary approach to New Urbanism," he says.

Hyman began his research by reading as much as he could find on his topic. He also established communication with the Congress of New Urbanism, a group of theorists and planners involved with the movement. This summer, he also was able to visit Kentlands, Md., one of the first New Urban communities. A suburb of Washington, D.C., Kentlands embodies the "neotraditional" values of New Urbanism. Its developers sought to expand common public spaces while integrating residents of diverse income and ethnic background. They also tried to deemphasize car travel by widening sidewalks, narrowing streets, and bringing homes closer together. Kentlands is a clear response to what Hyman calls "the atomization and anomie produced by the suburb."

This fall, Hyman will visit the masterminds of Kentlands. Architects Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberg are the Miami-based husband-and-wife team who pioneered the New Urbanist movement and planned most of its East Coast communities. Rob will interview them and conduct research at the University of Miami School of Design, where Plater-Zyberg is dean. "I am particularly interested in documents that discuss the political theory of the movement," he notes. While Hyman is impressed with Kentlands and with the tenets of New Urbanism, he does not yet count himself a "true believer." "I suspect at this point that much could be done to improve the movement's efficacy in dealing with civic decay," he says. "It is a novel experiment, and its challenge to the atomizing effect of the suburb is potentially potent, but its stated desire to create contact with the other seems not to have been realized. The notion of fostering contact between diverse ethnic and income classes seems to have fallen short of its intentions."

"In addition," Hyman continues, "it appears that the New Urbanism has insufficiently attempted to forge connections with other movements that together might more profoundly change our communities -- for intance, reforms in our systems of highway funding, tax policy, and federal housing subsidies for the poor.

"At this point, however, I just don't know enough to assess what the gap between theory and pratice is," says Hyman. "That is why the HCRP grant will be useful in helping me evaluate the movement firsthand."

Hyman is a native New Yorker, and his interest in New Urbanism comes from a love of, and belief in, the idea of the city. "My New York City roots have had a profound impact on my world view and on my development," he says. "I think the inevitable encounters with the other, the electric vibrancy of the city, and the way in which many New Yorkers are ethnically and politically identified serves as a backdrop for my interest in the issue.

"I live in a city with many failures," he admits, "but I think there is a certain conception of the public realm that makes living in New York wonderful. I believe in the city that former Mayor David Dinkins called a gorgeous mosaic. As for my disgust with the reelection of Mayor Giuliani, that's another matter. . . ."

Hyman is one of a number of undergraduates starting research projects this fall with support from the Harvard College Research Program (HCRP). Over more than a decade, the HCRP has helped hundreds of students conduct independent research with faculty guidance. HCRP grants advanced acdemic experiences outside the classroom and expanded opportunities for students to work closely with faculty members.

-- Reprinted from The Harvard-Radcliffe Undergraduate Research Programs Newsletter