Clarence Stein
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Clarence Samuel Stein (June 19, 1882 – February 7, 1975) was an American
urban planner An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning. An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, town ...
, architect, and writer, a major proponent of the
garden city movement The garden city movement was a 20th century urban planning movement promoting satellite communities surrounding the central city and separated with greenbelts. These Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, industry, and ...
in the United States.


Biography

Stein was born in
Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...
into an upwardly-mobile Jewish family. While a youth, his family decamped to
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, where 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 and self-absorbed, 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 (from the Ancient Greek νεῦρον ''neuron'' "nerve" and ἀσθενής ''asthenés'' "weak") is a term that was first used at least as early as 1829 for a mechanical weakness of the nerves and became a major diagnosis in North A ...
for which he was sent to Florida to endure a rest cure. He returned to New York and worked in his family's casket business, where the combination of physical and mental labor matched the philosophy in which he had been educated, much in keeping with his contemporary
John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the f ...
. After a year or so, he prepared to attend college, embarking on an American version of the
Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...
: travel to the artistic and cultural centers of Europe, in this case in the company of his father. Returning to the United States, he immersed himself in work in the Progressive
settlement house The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and s ...
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 amelioration movements (Jane Adams's, Hull House is an example) and dedicated to studying and then agitating for improvements to the chaotic life of the modern city. While at work on that mission, Stein began to take classes at Columbia University, but they were not the traditional liberal-arts courses common at an
Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...
academy. Instead, he focused on a progressive curriculum newly installed at Columbia under the influence of Dewey: cabinet making, furniture design, and the useful arts. Having been deeply impressed by the vision of modern Paris while on his European tour, Stein decided to attend the prestigious,
École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...
in Paris, where many outstanding American architects were seeking training in design according to classical principles. Training at the École as an architect-designer required immersion in what is today known as
Beaux-Arts Classicism Beaux Arts, Beaux arts, or Beaux-Arts is a French term corresponding to fine arts in English. Capitalized, it may refer to: * Académie des Beaux-Arts, a French arts institution (not a school) * Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, a Belgian arts scho ...
, a rigorous pedagogy that sought to train architects and artists in the grand tradition that began with the Greeks, passed through Rome and then the Renaissance, and emerged as the modern equivalent of humanistic philosophies. Upon returning to America, Stein joined the office of the progressive, eclectic architect
Bertram Goodhue Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue (April 28, 1869 – April 23, 1924) was an American architect celebrated for his work in Gothic Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival design. He also designed notable typefaces, including Cheltenham and Merrymount for ...
and his more eccentric partner Ralph Adams Cram in 1911 and contributed to three of Goodhue's large-scale projects of that time: the Panama-California Exposition (1915) 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. While working on these extraordinary planning schemes he participated in the birth of modern urban design in the United States. While marginally influenced by Ebenezer Howard, the English Garden City advocate, Stein was more attuned to the planning innovations of his American contemporaries: Edward Bennett, John Nolen, and John Charles Olmsted. In 1919, Stein started his own practice in New York, and in 1921, he began his long association with fellow architect Henry Wright. The two were influential in the 1930s, designing New Town projects, sponsored by New Deal visionaries: Radburn, New Jersey, Sunnyside Gardens, Queens, and Chatham Village, Pittsburgh. In 1923, Stein also cofounded the
Regional Planning Association of America The Regional Planning Association of America ("RPAA"), 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. The goal of this group was to ...
(RPAA) 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 (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990) was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a wr ...
and
Benton MacKaye Benton MacKaye ( ; March 6, 1879 – December 11, 1975) 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 Unive ...
; the RPAA helped MacKaye develop his vision for what would become the
Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail (also called the A.T.), is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian Tr ...
. The RPAA has remained a formative and influential organization in regional planning, especially in the New York Metropolitan area. Stein served as a president of the RPAA from 1925 to 1948. From 1923 to 1926, Stein served as chairman for the New York State Housing and Regional Planning Commission. Stein travelled extensively to other countries and established friendships with among others Swedish statesman-planner
Yngve Larsson Gustaf Richard ''Yngve'' Larsson (; December 13, 1881 – December 16, 1977) was a Swedish political scientist, Municipal commissioner (''Borgarråd''), and Member of Parliament. He was an important force in the urban development of Stockholm du ...
.


Personal life

From 1928 to his death in 1975, Stein was married to stage and film actress Aline MacMahon. They had no children.IMDB entry
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Accomplishments

Beginning in 1923 Stein and Henry Wright collaborated on the plan for
Sunnyside Gardens Sunnyside Gardens is a community within Sunnyside, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. The area was the first development in the United States patterned after the ideas of the garden city movement initiated in England in the f ...
, a neighborhood of the New York City borough of
Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
. The low-rise pedestrian-oriented development was constructed between 1924 and 1929. It was funded by fellow RPAA officer Alexander Bing and took the garden city ideas of Sir
Ebenezer Howard Sir Ebenezer Howard (29 January 1850 – 1 May 1928) was an English urban planner and founder of the garden city movement, known for his publication '' To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform'' (1898), the description of a utopian city in whi ...
as a model. This neighborhood has retained its special character and has been listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
. Construction for Sunnyside started April 1, 1924, two months after it was purchased from
Pennsylvania Railroad Company The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...
. 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 much 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 Wright collaborated with Kenneth Weinberger on the plan for the Radburn community in
Fair Lawn, New Jersey Fair Lawn is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, and a bedroom suburb located northwest of New York City. As of the 2020 United States Census, the borough’s population was 34,940, which constituted a 7.7% increase from 32, ...
, 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 within. 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 (27 July 1886 – 11 September 1970) was a List of German architects, German architect and :German urban planners, city planner. May successfully applied urban design techniques to the city of Frankfurt am Main during the Weimar R ...
in Germany (researched by a young
Catherine Bauer Catherine Krouse Bauer Wurster (May 11, 1905 – November 21, 1964) was an American public housing advocate and educator of city planners and urban planners. A leading member of the "housers," a group of planners who advocated affordable housi ...
), 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 The Resettlement Administration (RA) was a New Deal U.S. federal agency created May 1, 1935. It relocated struggling urban and rural families to communities planned by the federal government. On September 1, 1937, it was succeeded by the Farm Se ...
, and planned for 22 green-belt resettlement towns across the country. Three were built:
Greenbelt, Maryland Greenbelt is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and a suburb of Washington, D.C. At the 2020 census, the population was 24,921. Greenbelt is the first and the largest of the three experimental and controversial New Deal ...
,
Greendale, Wisconsin Greendale is a village in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 14,854 at the 2020 census. Greendale is located southwest of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is a part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. A planned community, i ...
and
Greenhills, Ohio Greenhills is a village in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 3,615 at the 2010 census. A planned community, it was established by the United States government during the Great Depression. Most of the village is a National ...
. 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 The Public Works Administration (PWA), 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 Recove ...
project in 1935; part of the massive wartime labor-force housing at the Walt Whitman Houses in Fort Greene, Brooklyn;
Baldwin Hills Village Village Green, originally named Baldwin Hills Village, is a neighborhood at the foot of Baldwin Hills, within the city of Los Angeles, California. Village Green consists of a large condominium complex that is both a Los Angeles Historic-Cultura ...
(now the Village Green) in Los Angeles, California in 1941; and his only postwar commission, the re-planning of
Kitimat, British Columbia Kitimat is a district municipality in the North Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. It is a member municipality of the Regional District of Kitimat–Stikine regional government. The Kitimat Valley is part of the most populous urban distric ...
, in 1951. Stein wrote ''Toward New Towns for America'' in 1951, and received the
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." It is the Ins ...
in 1956.


Death

Stein died on February 7, 1975 at his home in New York City.


Other accomplishments

*
Village Green A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...
, Los Angeles *
Baldwin Village Baldwin Village is a commercial enclave in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the west of downtown Toronto, within the Grange Park (neighbourhood), Grange Park neighbourhood, one block north of Dundas Street, Dundas Street West, between ...
, Los Angeles *
Chatham Village Chatham Village is a community within the larger Mount Washington neighborhood of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and an internationally acclaimed model of community design. It is roughly bounded by Virginia Avenue, Bigham Street, Woodruff S ...
, Pittsburgh *
Green Brook, New Jersey Green Brook Township is a township in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. It is centrally located within the Raritan Valley region. As of the 2010 United States census, the township's population was 7,203, reflecting an increase of 1,5 ...
*
Greenbelt, Maryland Greenbelt is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and a suburb of Washington, D.C. At the 2020 census, the population was 24,921. Greenbelt is the first and the largest of the three experimental and controversial New Deal ...
*
Greendale, Wisconsin Greendale is a village in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 14,854 at the 2020 census. Greendale is located southwest of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is a part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. A planned community, i ...
*
Kitimat, British Columbia Kitimat is a district municipality in the North Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. It is a member municipality of the Regional District of Kitimat–Stikine regional government. The Kitimat Valley is part of the most populous urban distric ...
* Phipps Garden Apartments (I) and (II), New York City * Valley Stream Project


Published work

*''The Writings of Clarence S. Stein: Architect of the Planned Community'', 1998 *''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


Images


City of CumberlandVitruvius.com


References

*Stein, Clarence. (1951). ''Toward New Towns for America'':
MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...
*Stein, Clarence. (2005). Infoplease Web site: http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0846615.html *Stein, Clarence. (1957). "Toward New Towns for America: with an introduction by Lewis Mumford *
Stein's papers at CornellThe Village Green Web site
*Modern Architectural Theory: A Historical Survey, 1673–1968, Dr. Harry Francis Mallgrave {{DEFAULTSORT:Stein, Clarence 1882 births 1975 deaths People from Rochester, New York Columbia University alumni American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts American urban planners Radburn design housing estates 20th-century American architects Recipients of the AIA Gold Medal