From global urban futures to America's urban crisis: Doxiadis in the United States

Ray Bromley (SUNY, Albany)

I will summarize the work of Constantinos Doxiadis and Doxiadis Associates, both in and on the United States, focusing on the period from 1957 till 1975. This will cover the early U.S. projects, most notably Eastwick and the Urban Renewal Study for HUD, mention a wide range of other projects and plans, and lead onto a more detailed discussion of the Detroit Metropolitan Regional plan and its associated Cleveland and Great Lakes Megalopolis projects. The title of the paper is intended to emphasize that when Doxiadis began his planning work in the United States he already had a great deal of experience and information on global urbanization, and that his involvement in the United States came during a period of considerable urban unrest. I will try to put Doxiadis's work in the two contexts: rapid global population growth and urbanization; and, the emergence of an urban crisis in the United States linked with suburbanization, urban renewal, rising levels of inequality, and campaigns for social and racial justice.