Regional Plan of New York & Its Environs
Core idea
Highways, parkways, centers, open space
Why it matters
First major US metropolitan regional plan
Description
The 1929 Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs was the first comprehensive plan for an entire metropolitan region, coordinating highways, transit, parks, and land use across hundreds of municipalities in three states, treating the sprawling metropolis as a single planning object.
Significance
The RPNY invented modern metropolitan regional planning, establishing the idea that the true unit of planning is the region, not the city. Its influence on highways and decentralization shaped — for better and worse — the American metropolis.
What became of it
Largely realised over subsequent decades, with much of the highway, parkway and open-space network closely following the plan's proposals; by the early 1960s most first-plan recommendations were implemented, the major exception being transit connections.
Critique
It prioritised roads and parkways over public transit, contributing to a region where the highway network expanded while transit shrank.
What shaped it
- Plan of Chicago (1909)
- The Neighbourhood Unit (1929)
- The cul-de-sac / Radburn layout (1929)
- Zoning (1884 Germany / 1916 NYC)
- Garden Cities of To-Morrow (1898 / 1902)
Plans it influenced
- Toronto 1966 Metropolitan Plan (1966)
- Greater London Plan (1944)
- County of London Plan (1943)
- Second Regional Plan for New York (1968)
- Third Regional Plan for New York (1996)
- Fourth Regional Plan for New York (2017)
Sources
- https://rpa.org/work/reports/regional-plan-of-new-york-and-its-environs
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Plan_Association