''10 That Changed America'' is a series of television

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

s about the history of

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

and

urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

produced by US public service broadcaster

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

member station

WTTW WTTW (channel 11) is a PBS member television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by not-for-profit broadcaster Window to the World Communications, Inc., it is sister to commercial classical music radio station WFMT (98.7 FM). The ...

from 2013 to 2018. The series is presented by

Geoffrey Baer Geoffrey Baer is an American television personality, actor and producer best known for hosting the ''10 That Changed America'' series, the ''Chicago By Boat'' architecture series, and other television programs produced by WTTW in Chicago for I ...

and produced by Dan Protess. The series comprises seven separate films, each approximately 55 minutes in length. The initial episode on ''10 Buildings That Changed America'' was broadcast in 2013. A three part season 1 comprising episodes on ''10 Homes'', ''10 Towns'' and ''10 Parks'' followed in 2016. Season 2 with three further episodes covering ''10 Streets'', ''10 Monuments'' and ''10 Modern Marvels'' aired in July 2018.

''10 Buildings That Changed America''

''10 Homes That Changed America''

''10 Towns That Changed America''

''10 Parks That Changed America''

''10 Streets That Changed America''

The chosen streets, in rough chronological order of establishment, were New York City's Broadway, the

Boston Post Road The Boston Post Road was a system of mail-delivery routes between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts that evolved into one of the first major highways in the United States. The three major alignments were the Lower Post Road (now U.S. Ro ...

linking Boston, MA to New York, NY,

St. Charles Avenue St. Charles Avenue (french: avenue Saint-Charles) is a thoroughfare in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. and the route of the St. Charles Streetcar Line. It is also famous for the dozens of mansions that adorn the tree-lined boulevard for much of the ...

in New Orleans, LA, the National Road linking Cumberland, MD to Vandalia, IL, Brooklyn's Eastern Parkway in New York City,

Woodward Avenue A woodward is a Game warden, warden of a wood. Woodward may also refer to: Places ;United States * Woodward, Iowa * Woodward, Oklahoma * Woodward, Pennsylvania, a census-designated place * Woodward Avenue, a street in Tallahassee, Florida, which b ...

in Detroit, MI, the

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 1913 ...

from New York, NY to San Francisco, CA, Greenwood Avenue in Tulsa, OK, Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, CA, and the

Kalamazoo Mall The Kalamazoo Mall, the first outdoor pedestrian shopping mall in the United States, is a section of Burdick Street in downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan. Built for $60,000 and opened in 1959, the pedestrian mall became the first of several hundred bu ...

outdoor pedestrian shopping mall at Kalamazoo, MI.

''10 Monuments That Changed America''

The chosen monuments were the Bunker Hill Monument at Boston, MA (1843), the Statue of Liberty (1886), Standing Soldiers monuments to Civil War dead (post 1865), the Robert Gould Shaw/54th Regiment Memorial at Boston, MA (1897), the

Lincoln Memorial The Lincoln Memorial is a U.S. national memorial built to honor the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is on the western end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., across from the Washington Monument, and is in the ...

at Washington, DC (1922), Mount Rushmore (1941), the Gateway Arch at St. Louis, MO (1965), the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Washington, DC (1982), the

AIDS Memorial Quilt The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, often abbreviated to AIDS Memorial Quilt or AIDS Quilt, is an enormous memorial to celebrate the lives of people who have died of AIDS-related causes. Weighing an estimated 54 tons, it is the largest piece o ...

(1987), and the Oklahoma City National Memorial at Oklahoma City, OK (2000).

''10 Modern Marvels That Changed America''

The civil engineering feats were the

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...

(1825), the

John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge (formerly the Cincinnati-Covington Bridge) is a suspension bridge that spans the Ohio River between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky. When opened on December 1, 1866, it was the longest suspension ...

across the Ohio River at Cincinnati, OH (1866), the

Transcontinental Railroad A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage, that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single ...

(1869), the Eads Bridge across the Mississippi River at St. Louis, MO (1874), the Reversal of the Chicago River (1900), the Holland Tunnel under the Hudson River connecting New York, NY to Jersey City, NJ (1927), the

Hoover Dam Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on Se ...

(1936), the Colorado River Aqueduct (1935), the

Interstate Highway System The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

(1956), and New Orleans' Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System (2005)

Critical response

The initial episode on ''10 Buildings That Changed America'' received mixed reviews from architecture critics. It was recognised as achieving the goal to "explain complex battles over architectural ideas, in clear language, to a broad audience". However, it was also criticised as lacking substance and failing to address "the historical, social and economic impact of these 10 buildings". The

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

Star Tribune The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...

'' highlighted the series 1 episode covering ''10 Homes That Changed America'' for informativeness on "influential homes that transformed residential living".Palmer, Kim
"Worth watching"
''

'',

, 2 Apr 2016. Retrieved on 2 July 2018.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official PBS series page

Official WTTW series page

10 Buildings That Changed America on Internet Movie Database

10 Homes That Changed America on Internet Movie Database

10 Towns That Changed America on Internet Movie Database

10 Parks That Changed America on Internet Movie Database
PBS original programming Television series by WTTW 2016 television specials Television series about the history of the United States