Clarence Stein
Encyclopedia
Clarence Samuel Stein was an American urban planner
, architect, and writer, a major proponent of the "Garden City" movement
in the United States.
into an upwardly mobile Jewish family. While a youth, his family transplanted to New York City
. There he was immersed in the milieu surrounding the Ethical Culture Society
, attending its Workshop School and developing his sensibilities within the context of Progressive thought: the integration of physical and mental labor, the importance of a universal humanistic philosophy, the concept of a nurtured individualistic sensibility. Intense, even overwrought, the young Stein had a nervous collapse shortly before he was scheduled to leave for college, experiencing a bout of what was then called neurasthenia
, for which he was sent to Florida to endure a rest cure.
He returned to New York but did not immediately matriculate; instead, he worked in his family's casket business, where the combination of physical and mental labor matched the philosophy in which he'd been educated. After a year or so, he prepared to attend college; one essential step was the American upper-middle-class version of the Grand Tour: travel to the artistic and cultural centers of Europe, in this case in the company of his father. Returning to the United States, he again postponed university education, immersing himself in work in the Progressive settlement house movement. In concert with his brothers and a small cohort of like-minded young men, many of whom would be influential partners for the rest of his career, Stein started the Young Men's Municipal Club, an organization modeled on many other such burgeoning social-studies movements, and dedicated like them to studying and then agitating for improvements to the chaotic life of the modern city.
While at work on this urban mission, Stein began to take classes at Columbia University, but they were not the traditional liberal-arts courses appropriate to a prosperous and gifted young man at an Ivy League academy. Instead, he focused on the courses newly appearing at Columbia under the influence of the Pragmatists and Progressives: cabinet making, furniture design, and design more generally. Having been deeply impressed by the vision of modern Paris while on his European tour, Stein decided to attend the prestigious, though still deeply conservative École des Beaux-Arts
in Paris.
Training at the École as an architect-designer, even as late as the early 20th century, meant an immersion in what is today known as Beaux-Arts Neoclassicism, a historicist architectural style that sought to train architects-- and artists-- to stay within the grand traditions that began with the Greeks, passed through Rome and then the Renaissance, and emerged as the dominant style of French culture.
Upon returning to the United States, Stein joined the office of the deeply conservative Gothic-Revival architect Bertram Goodhue
and his more illustrious, but equally conservative, partner, Ralph Adams Cram
in 1911 and contributed to three of Goodhue's large-scale projects of the time: the 1915 Panama-California Exposition
in San Diego, California
, the company town of Tyrone, New Mexico
, and the master plan and individual buildings for the California Institute of Technology
in Pasadena.
In 1919 Stein started his own practice in New York, and in 1921 began his long association with fellow architect Henry Wright. In 1923 Stein also co-founded the Regional Planning Association of America
to address large-scale planning issues such as affordable housing, the impact of sprawl, and wilderness preservation. Other founding members included Lewis Mumford
and Benton MacKaye
; the RPAA helped MacKaye develop his vision for what would become the Appalachian Trail
.
From 1923 to 1926 Stein served as chairman for the New York State Housing and Regional Planning Commission.
. They had no children.
borough of Queens
. The 77 acres (311,608.2 m²) low-rise pedestrian-oriented development was constructed between 1924 to 1929. It was funded by fellow RPAA officer Alexander Bing and took the garden city ideas of Sir Ebenezer Howard
as a model. This neighborhood has retained its special character and has been listed on the National Register of Historical Places.
Construction for Sunnyside started April 1, 1924, two months after it was purchased from Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Because of the high costs of urban land, many neighborhoods were congested and run down, making it unhealthy and an unenjoyable place to live in. Sunnyside was different; the land was not being used by the railroad company so it was cheap. Stein had a very important job with Sunnyside. He was responsible not only for developing a more generally affordable neighborhood , but also making it a healthy and enjoyable place to live. He designed more natural green space with lots of light, resulting in a serene living environment. In between all the apartment buildings there was a central public open space, such as a play ground or mini park. The park was then surrounded by individual private gardens that went to the ground level of the apartments. Gardens were also placed on the front of the apartment buildings between the road and the building. This helped break up the long lines of houses and also created an appealing mood. Stein needed as much space as possible to incorporate gardens and open areas. Because of this, he had to place the garages by themselves separate from the apartment buildings. The ending outcome of Sunnyside was very successful.
In 1929 Stein and White collaborated with Kenneth Weinberger on the plan for the Radburn community in Fair Lawn, New Jersey
, roughly double the area of Sunnyside. The vision for Radburn was of an integrated self-sustaining community, surrounded by greenbelts, specialized automotive thoroughfares (main linking roads, serviced lanes for direct access to buildings, and express highways), and a complete separation of auto and pedestrian traffic. These thoroughfares were called superblocks. This was because the block is very large with a very large road surrounding the houses with in. Stein knew that the community could not survive without a road system but he also didn't want the roads dominating the land. Instead, the superblocks make the main focus on the yards and the gardens surrounding the buildings. This grand vision was informed by the lessons of Sunnyside, and by the comparable city-planning work of Ernst May
in Germany (researched by a young Catherine Bauer), but the experiment was never completed because of the economic pressures of the Depression. Due to the Depression and different land issues, Radburn was not able to become a Garden City, but it was still impressionable because the superblock was a very successful idea that has been repeated numerous times.
In the 1930s Stein and the other members of the RPAA saw their social housing cause adopted by the government, at least for a while. They lobbied for the creation of government-sponsored planned communities, under the short-lived Resettlement Administration
, and planned for 22 green-belt resettlement towns across the country. Three were built: Greenbelt, Maryland
, Greendale, Wisconsin
and Greenhills, Ohio
. The others were halted when the Resettlement Administration was dissolved in 1936.
Among Stein's other urban-planning credits are the five-city-block Hillside Homes in Williamsbridge, the Bronx, as a Public Works Administration
project in 1935; part of the massive wartime labor-force housing at the Walt Whitman Houses in Fort Greene, Brooklyn; Baldwin Hills Village (now the Village Green) in Los Angeles, California in 1941; and his only postwar commission, the re-planning of Kitimat, British Columbia
, in 1951.
Stein wrote Toward New Towns for America in 1951, and received the AIA Gold Medal
in 1956. He died in 1975 at the age of 93.
Toward New Towns for America, 1951
Kitimat: A New City, 1954
Report of the Commission of Housing and Regional Planning to Governor Alfred..., 1925
Primer of Housing, 1927 (co-author)
Store Buildings and Neighborhood Shopping Centres, 1934
Radburn, Town for the Motor Age, 1965
Hillside Homes, 1936
Urban planner
An urban planner or city planner is a professional who works in the field of urban planning/land use planning for the purpose of optimizing the effectiveness of a community's land use and infrastructure. They formulate plans for the development and management of urban and suburban areas, typically...
, architect, and writer, a major proponent of the "Garden City" movement
Garden city movement
The garden city movement is a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. Garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained communities surrounded by "greenbelts" , containing proportionate areas of residences, industry and...
in the United States.
Biography
Stein was born in Rochester, New YorkRochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
into an upwardly mobile Jewish family. While a youth, his family transplanted to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. There he was immersed in the milieu surrounding the Ethical Culture Society
Ethical Culture
The Ethical movement, also referred to as the Ethical Culture movement or simply Ethical Culture, is an ethical, educational, and religious movement that is usually traced back to Felix Adler...
, attending its Workshop School and developing his sensibilities within the context of Progressive thought: the integration of physical and mental labor, the importance of a universal humanistic philosophy, the concept of a nurtured individualistic sensibility. Intense, even overwrought, the young Stein had a nervous collapse shortly before he was scheduled to leave for college, experiencing a bout of what was then called neurasthenia
Neurasthenia
Neurasthenia is a psycho-pathological term first used by George Miller Beard in 1869 to denote a condition with symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, headache, neuralgia and depressed mood...
, for which he was sent to Florida to endure a rest cure.
He returned to New York but did not immediately matriculate; instead, he worked in his family's casket business, where the combination of physical and mental labor matched the philosophy in which he'd been educated. After a year or so, he prepared to attend college; one essential step was the American upper-middle-class version of the Grand Tour: travel to the artistic and cultural centers of Europe, in this case in the company of his father. Returning to the United States, he again postponed university education, immersing himself in work in the Progressive settlement house movement. In concert with his brothers and a small cohort of like-minded young men, many of whom would be influential partners for the rest of his career, Stein started the Young Men's Municipal Club, an organization modeled on many other such burgeoning social-studies movements, and dedicated like them to studying and then agitating for improvements to the chaotic life of the modern city.
While at work on this urban mission, Stein began to take classes at Columbia University, but they were not the traditional liberal-arts courses appropriate to a prosperous and gifted young man at an Ivy League academy. Instead, he focused on the courses newly appearing at Columbia under the influence of the Pragmatists and Progressives: cabinet making, furniture design, and design more generally. Having been deeply impressed by the vision of modern Paris while on his European tour, Stein decided to attend the prestigious, though still deeply conservative École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...
in Paris.
Training at the École as an architect-designer, even as late as the early 20th century, meant an immersion in what is today known as Beaux-Arts Neoclassicism, a historicist architectural style that sought to train architects-- and artists-- to stay within the grand traditions that began with the Greeks, passed through Rome and then the Renaissance, and emerged as the dominant style of French culture.
Upon returning to the United States, Stein joined the office of the deeply conservative Gothic-Revival architect Bertram Goodhue
Bertram Goodhue
Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue was a American architect celebrated for his work in neo-gothic design. He also designed notable typefaces, including Cheltenham and Merrymount for the Merrymount Press.-Early career:...
and his more illustrious, but equally conservative, partner, Ralph Adams Cram
Ralph Adams Cram
Ralph Adams Cram FAIA, , was a prolific and influential American architect of collegiate and ecclesiastical buildings, often in the Gothic style. Cram & Ferguson and Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson are partnerships in which he worked.-Early life:Cram was born on December 16, 1863 at Hampton Falls, New...
in 1911 and contributed to three of Goodhue's large-scale projects of the time: the 1915 Panama-California Exposition
Panama-California Exposition (1915)
The Panama-California Exposition was an exposition held in San Diego, California between March 9, 1915 and January 1, 1917. The exposition celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal, and was meant to tout San Diego as the first U.S. port of call for ships traveling north after passing westward...
in San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
, the company town of Tyrone, New Mexico
Tyrone, New Mexico
Tyrone is a ghost town located in Grant County, New Mexico, United States, in the southwestern part of the state.Tyrone was an elaborately planned community financed by the Phelps Dodge Corporation, based on Mediterranean and European styles, designed by well-known architect Bertram Goodhue and...
, and the master plan and individual buildings for the California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
in Pasadena.
In 1919 Stein started his own practice in New York, and in 1921 began his long association with fellow architect Henry Wright. In 1923 Stein also co-founded the Regional Planning Association of America
Regional Planning Association of America
The Regional Planning Association of America , formed by Clarence Stein was an urban reform association developed in 1923. The association was a diverse group of people all with their own talents and skills...
to address large-scale planning issues such as affordable housing, the impact of sprawl, and wilderness preservation. Other founding members included Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford was an American historian, philosopher of technology, and influential literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a writer...
and Benton MacKaye
Benton MacKaye
Benton MacKaye was an American forester, planner and conservationist. He was born in Stamford, Connecticut; his father was actor and dramatist Steele MacKaye. After studying forestry at Harvard University , Benton later taught there for several years. He joined a number of Federal bureaus and...
; the RPAA helped MacKaye develop his vision for what would become the Appalachian Trail
Appalachian Trail
The Appalachian National Scenic Trail, generally known as the Appalachian Trail or simply the AT, is a marked hiking trail in the eastern United States extending between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine. It is approximately long...
.
From 1923 to 1926 Stein served as chairman for the New York State Housing and Regional Planning Commission.
Personal life
From 1928 to his death in 1975, Stein was married to stage and film actress Aline MacMahonAline MacMahon
Aline MacMahon was an American actress. Her career began on stage in 1921. She worked extensively in film and television until her retirement in 1975. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Dragon Seed .-Early life:Aline Laveen MacMahon was born...
. They had no children.
Accomplishments
Beginning in 1923 Stein and Wright collaborated on the plan for Sunnyside Gardens, a neighborhood of the New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
borough of Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
. The 77 acres (311,608.2 m²) low-rise pedestrian-oriented development was constructed between 1924 to 1929. It was funded by fellow RPAA officer Alexander Bing and took the garden city ideas of Sir Ebenezer Howard
Ebenezer Howard
Sir Ebenezer Howard is known for his publication Garden Cities of To-morrow , the description of a utopian city in which people live harmoniously together with nature. The publication resulted in the founding of the garden city movement, that realized several Garden Cities in Great Britain at the...
as a model. This neighborhood has retained its special character and has been listed on the National Register of Historical Places.
Construction for Sunnyside started April 1, 1924, two months after it was purchased from Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Because of the high costs of urban land, many neighborhoods were congested and run down, making it unhealthy and an unenjoyable place to live in. Sunnyside was different; the land was not being used by the railroad company so it was cheap. Stein had a very important job with Sunnyside. He was responsible not only for developing a more generally affordable neighborhood , but also making it a healthy and enjoyable place to live. He designed more natural green space with lots of light, resulting in a serene living environment. In between all the apartment buildings there was a central public open space, such as a play ground or mini park. The park was then surrounded by individual private gardens that went to the ground level of the apartments. Gardens were also placed on the front of the apartment buildings between the road and the building. This helped break up the long lines of houses and also created an appealing mood. Stein needed as much space as possible to incorporate gardens and open areas. Because of this, he had to place the garages by themselves separate from the apartment buildings. The ending outcome of Sunnyside was very successful.
In 1929 Stein and White collaborated with Kenneth Weinberger on the plan for the Radburn community in Fair Lawn, New Jersey
Fair Lawn, New Jersey
Fair Lawn is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States and a suburban municipality in the New York City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 32,457. Fair Lawn was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March...
, roughly double the area of Sunnyside. The vision for Radburn was of an integrated self-sustaining community, surrounded by greenbelts, specialized automotive thoroughfares (main linking roads, serviced lanes for direct access to buildings, and express highways), and a complete separation of auto and pedestrian traffic. These thoroughfares were called superblocks. This was because the block is very large with a very large road surrounding the houses with in. Stein knew that the community could not survive without a road system but he also didn't want the roads dominating the land. Instead, the superblocks make the main focus on the yards and the gardens surrounding the buildings. This grand vision was informed by the lessons of Sunnyside, and by the comparable city-planning work of Ernst May
Ernst May
Ernst May was a German architect and city planner.May successfully applied urban design techniques to the city of Frankfurt am Main during Germany's Weimar period, and in 1930 less successfully exported those ideas to Soviet Union cities, newly created under Stalinist rule...
in Germany (researched by a young Catherine Bauer), but the experiment was never completed because of the economic pressures of the Depression. Due to the Depression and different land issues, Radburn was not able to become a Garden City, but it was still impressionable because the superblock was a very successful idea that has been repeated numerous times.
In the 1930s Stein and the other members of the RPAA saw their social housing cause adopted by the government, at least for a while. They lobbied for the creation of government-sponsored planned communities, under the short-lived Resettlement Administration
Resettlement Administration
The Resettlement Administration was a U.S. federal agency that, between April 1935 and December 1936, relocated struggling urban and rural families to communities planned by the federal government....
, and planned for 22 green-belt resettlement towns across the country. Three were built: Greenbelt, Maryland
Greenbelt, Maryland
Greenbelt is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. Contained within today's City of Greenbelt is the historic planned community now known locally as "Old Greenbelt" and designated as the Greenbelt Historic District...
, Greendale, Wisconsin
Greendale, Wisconsin
Greendale is a village in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 14,405 at the 2000 census.-History:Greendale was settled in 1938 as a public cooperative community in the New Deal Era...
and Greenhills, Ohio
Greenhills, Ohio
Greenhills is a village in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 4,103 at the 2000 census. It is a planned community that was established by the United States federal government during the Great Depression.-Geography:...
. The others were halted when the Resettlement Administration was dissolved in 1936.
Among Stein's other urban-planning credits are the five-city-block Hillside Homes in Williamsbridge, the Bronx, as a Public Works Administration
Public Works Administration
The Public Works Administration , part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 in response to the Great Depression...
project in 1935; part of the massive wartime labor-force housing at the Walt Whitman Houses in Fort Greene, Brooklyn; Baldwin Hills Village (now the Village Green) in Los Angeles, California in 1941; and his only postwar commission, the re-planning of Kitimat, British Columbia
Kitimat, British Columbia
Kitimat is a coastal city in northwestern British Columbia, in the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine. The Kitimat Valley, which includes the adjacent community of Terrace, is the most populous urban district in Northwest British Columbia...
, in 1951.
Stein wrote Toward New Towns for America in 1951, and received the AIA Gold Medal
AIA Gold Medal
The AIA Gold Medal is awarded by the American Institute of Architects conferred "by the national AIA Board of Directors in recognition of a significant body of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture."...
in 1956. He died in 1975 at the age of 93.
Other Accomplishments
- Chatham VillageChatham VillageChatham Village is a community within the larger Mount Washington neighborhood of the City of Pittsburgh, and an internationally acclaimed model of community design. Chatham Village Historic District, is a historic district in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. It is roughly bounded by Virginia Ave.,...
, Pittsburgh - Phipps Garden Apartments (I) and (II), New York City
- Valley Stream Project
- Greenbelt, MarylandGreenbelt, MarylandGreenbelt is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. Contained within today's City of Greenbelt is the historic planned community now known locally as "Old Greenbelt" and designated as the Greenbelt Historic District...
- Green Brook, New Jersey
- Greendale, WisconsinGreendale, WisconsinGreendale is a village in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 14,405 at the 2000 census.-History:Greendale was settled in 1938 as a public cooperative community in the New Deal Era...
- Baldwin Hills Village, Los Angeles
- Kitimat, British ColumbiaKitimat, British ColumbiaKitimat is a coastal city in northwestern British Columbia, in the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine. The Kitimat Valley, which includes the adjacent community of Terrace, is the most populous urban district in Northwest British Columbia...
Significance
Clarence Stein's work expanded the idea of a Garden City. He was able to take the boring and stale urban subdivision, and make it inventive and exciting. He believed in molding urban construction into nature. He brought these two aspects together to make a modern yet comfortable environment. Because Steins work is reused so much today, it shows how successful his designs were.Published work
The Writings of Clarence S. Stein: Architect of the Planned Community, 1998Toward New Towns for America, 1951
Kitimat: A New City, 1954
Report of the Commission of Housing and Regional Planning to Governor Alfred..., 1925
Primer of Housing, 1927 (co-author)
Store Buildings and Neighborhood Shopping Centres, 1934
Radburn, Town for the Motor Age, 1965
Hillside Homes, 1936
