David A. Wallace FAICP, AIA, PP (1917 – July 19, 2004) was an urban planner and
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
who co-founded, with
Ian McHarg, the firm of
Wallace Roberts & Todd (WRT).
Early career
Wallace's career spanned the second half of the 20th century. Beginning in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, in 1953, under Mayor
Joseph S. Clark, Wallace led a citywide urban redevelopment evaluation that resulted in the Central Urban Renewal Area Report (CURA), which established a new strategy for overall redevelopment that targeted catalytic actions to strengthen communities and downtown. CURA became a model for several other cities, notably
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
.
In 1957, Wallace moved to
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
and headed a team to prepare a plan for the city's ailing
central business district, which had not had any major new construction projects since the end of the 1920s. Responding to the need for immediate action, the team designed the
Charles Center
Charles Center is a large-scale urban redevelopment project in central Baltimore's downtown business district of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Beginning in 1954, a group called the "Committee for Downtown" promoted a master plan for arresting th ...
, a 33-acre mixed-use project that started the revitalization. Approved by Baltimore City voters in a bond issue request for $25 million in the municipal elections of November 1958, the concept was strongly supported by two mayors of the city from different political parties: Democrat
Thomas L. J. D'Alesandro, Jr. (1947-1959) and Republican
Theodore R. McKeldin, (1943-1947 and 1963-1967), as well as business, commercial and other civic leaders in the
Greater Baltimore Committee
The Greater Baltimore Committee was formed to revitalize Baltimore City by businessmen in 1954. Developer James Rouse chaired the urban renewal subcommittee.
In 1955, the committee pushed for legislation to build the Jones Falls Expressway.
GBC p ...
and the Baltimore Chamber of Commerce. The Charles Center was praised by
Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs (''née'' Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book '' The Death and Life of Great American Cities ...
in the journal ''
Architectural Forum
''Architectural Forum'' was an American magazine that covered the homebuilding industry and architecture. Started in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1892 as ''The Brickbuilder'', it absorbed the magazine ''Architect's World'' in October 1938. Ownership ...
'' as the "New Heart for Downtown Baltimore", and set the stage for the subsequent
Inner Harbor
The Inner Harbor is a historic seaport, tourist attraction, and landmark of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. It was described by the Urban Land Institute in 2009 as "the model for post-industrial waterfront redevelopment around the world". Th ...
project, a re-development of the city's old waterfront district and the
Baltimore Harbor.
Wallace returned to Philadelphia to teach at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
's Graduate School of Fine Arts (now known as the
School of Design) as professor of planning and urban design. In 1963, he co-authored, with
Ian McHarg, the ''Plan for the Green Spring and Worthington Valleys'', a semi-rural area northwest of Baltimore in the suburban
Baltimore County
Baltimore County ( , locally: or ) is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Maryland and is part of the Baltimore metropolitan area. Baltimore County (which partially surrounds, though does not include, the independent City of ...
. The key idea in the Valleys Plan was the preservation of the valleys as largely undeveloped open space, and the diversion of development to the surrounding plateaus and to the east of the
Baltimore-Harrisburg Expressway
Interstate 83 (I-83) is an Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. Its southern terminus is at a signalized intersection with Fayette Street in Baltimore, Maryland; its northern terminus is at I-81 near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Most ...
(Interstate 83). The plan was praised by
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 w ...
as "brilliantly conceived", and was republished by McHarg as a chapter in his book ''Design with Nature''. McHarg wrote in his autobiography, ''A Quest for Life'', that by the 1970s, Wallace was "indisputably, the dominant city planner in the United States". The valleys northwest of Baltimore remain open and generally rural to this day.
Inner Harbor plan
When Wallace received the assignment to prepare the later Inner Harbor Master Plan, also in 1963, he asked McHarg, architect/landscape architect William H. Roberts and architect/urban designer Thomas A. Todd to join him in founding the partnership firm
Wallace McHarg Roberts & Todd (WMRT). With Wallace as partner in charge, the plan established the basic principles for development. Over the next 25 years Wallace and his partners were the designers of all of the Inner Harbor's infrastructure, promenades, piers, bridges and fountains, and the design controls for all private development. By 1980, with the addition of developer
James Rouse
James Wilson Rouse (April 26, 1914 – April 9, 1996) was an American businessman and founder of The Rouse Company. Rouse was a pioneering American real estate developer, urban planner, civic activist, and later, free enterprise-based philanthr ...
's "festival marketplaces" of
Harborplace
Harborplace is a shopping complex on the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland.
Description
The property is composed of 2 two-story pavilions: the Pratt Street Pavilion and the Light Street Pavilion. Each of these buildings contains many stores an ...
along the promenade, the project had become a well-known urban success story of the 1980s.
Lower Manhattan plan
Following the Inner Harbor plan, Mayor
John Lindsay
John Vliet Lindsay (; November 24, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American politician and lawyer. During his political career, Lindsay was a U.S. congressman, mayor of New York City, and candidate for U.S. president. He was also a regular ...
and the
City of New York
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
retained WMRT in 1965 (with Whittelsey, Conklin and
Rossant as local architects) to prepare a master plan for the moribund
Lower Manhattan district. Excavation for the
World Trade Center
World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association.
World Trade Center may refer to:
Buildings
* List of World Trade Centers
* World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
's foundations was underway, and the plan was to prepare a response to the WTC's impact. Wallace developed an urban design and growth modeling procedure that evaluated existing conditions, determined the susceptibility-to-change, forecast the probability-of-change, and proposed a design response. The catalytic idea in the Lower Manhattan Plan (LMP) was to develop a predominantly residential community on land created by filling between the bulkhead and pier head lines at both
Hudson and
East Rivers, adjacent to the single-use commercial centers. Public walkways would be provided at the water's edge, linked by pedestrian ways to the centers and subway stations. The districts' elevated expressways would be depressed. The LMP won the
Municipal Art Society of New York
The Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) is a non-profit membership organization for preservation in New York City, which aims to encourage thoughtful planning and urban design and inclusive neighborhoods across the city.
The organization was ...
's Honor Award and was published in ''Progressive Architecture''. Over the next decade, the firm developed plans for the central areas of
,
Buffalo in New York,
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
,
Orlando
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...
, and
Jacksonville
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
in
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
,
Oakland and
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
in
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, and
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
's MetroCenter, all employing Wallace's growth modeling method combined with catalytic projects unique to each.
The LMP's full public access to the rivers and continuous walkways at the water's edge caught the attention of John Weingart, director of New Jersey's Division of Coastal Zone Management. Part of the
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
Department of Environmental Protection, his division had been assigned regulatory control over a -deep coastal waterfront, and he saw the LMP concept as applicable. He retained
Wallace Roberts & Todd (after McHarg left the firm) to prepare the plan and develop design guidelines for the , nine-community facility. Mandated for both public and private developers, so far 75% of the
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
Waterfront Walkway is completed or in planning.
Recognition
Wallace received the John Harbeson Award from AIA Philadelphia for distinguished service to the profession in 2002 and the
American Planning Association's Distinguished Leadership Award in 2003. He was the author of ''Urban Planning/My Way'', a memoir published by the Planners Press in 2004 that features case studies that examine the evolution of large-scale urban development in the 20th century. In 2008, both APA Pennsylvania and National APA selected Wallace for the 2009 AICP National Planning Pioneer Award, in recognition of his contributions to the planning profession, as having significantly and positively redirected planning with long-term results.
Wallace was also a teacher throughout his career, first at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
, then at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
, where he taught for 17 years.
References
Books
*''"Urban Planning/My Way:From Baltimore's Inner Harbor to Lower Manhattan and Beyond"'' by David A. Wallace, (2004),
External links
Wallace Roberts & Todd, LLC (WRT) Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallace, David A.
1917 births
2004 deaths
20th-century American architects
Urban designers