PLAN-722A Land Use & Sustainable City Form

3 Credits

Since World War II, the spreading interstate highway systems and home financing policies have created the ubiquitous American suburb. Metropolitan regions have spread out along transportation corridors absorbing the countryside in a reckless manner. In the 1970s, a new network of global cities tied together by electronic communications began to rise. Examples include command and control centers such as London, New York and Tokyo. Regional growth poles such as St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Reno and Austin began to restructure the old dichotomy between the center and the periphery - or between town and country - and to re-link cities in a new global economy. This class examines the economic, demographic, cultural and political reformulations that have transformed metropolitan areas into global cities and backwater towns into new growth centers.