Edmund Norwood Bacon (May 2, 1910October 14, 2005) 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, educator, and author. During his tenure as the executive director of the
Philadelphia
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 ...
City Planning Commission from 1949 to 1970, his visions shaped today's Philadelphia, the city in which he was born, to the extent that he is sometimes described as "The Father of Modern Philadelphia".
Among other works, he authored the seminal urban planning book ''
Design of Cities
''Design of Cities'', first published in 1967, is an illustrated account of the development of urban form, written by Edmund Bacon (1910–2005), who was the executive director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission from 1949 to 1970. The w ...
''.
Early life
Bacon was born in West Philadelphia, the son of Helen Atkinson (
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Comly) and Ellis Williams Bacon. He grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs and graduated from
Swarthmore High School
Swarthmore High School was a four-year public high school in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania serving the Boroughs of Swarthmore and Rutledge.
History
Swarthmore established its own independent school district when Swarthmore Borough incorporated in 18 ...
in 1928. He was educated in architecture at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
, where his senior thesis for a new civic center for Philadelphia included an urban park at the position where Philadelphia's famous
LOVE Park
LOVE Park, officially known as John F. Kennedy Plaza, is a public park located in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The park is nicknamed LOVE Park for its reproduction of Robert Indiana's 1970 ''LOVE'' sculpture which overlooks the pla ...
was later built. After college, while traveling the world on a small inheritance, Bacon found work as an architect in Shanghai, China in Henry Murphy's office. He was responsible for designing the Nanking airport. With Murphy, he visited Beijing, a city that exerted a deep influence on his thinking. After a year in China, he returned to Philadelphia where he worked for architect
William Pope Barney.
He soon was awarded a scholarship to the
Cranbrook Academy of Art
The Cranbrook Educational Community is an education, research, and public museum complex in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. This National Historic Landmark was founded in the early 20th century by newspaper mogul George Gough Booth. It consists of C ...
, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, with
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
architect/planner
Eliel Saarinen
Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1873 – July 1, 1950) was a Finnish-American architect known for his work with art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century. He was also the father of famed architect Eero Saarinen.
Lif ...
, whom Bacon revered and whose theories about the city as a living organism as expressed in Saarinen's book ''The City'' were a basis for Bacon's later work. Saarinen sent Bacon to
Flint, Michigan
Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of 8 ...
to guide a
WPA
WPA may refer to:
Computing
*Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard
*Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing
* Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada
* Windows Performance An ...
traffic survey. This project transformed into a permanent position for Bacon at the Flint Institute for Planning and Research. Bacon became very active in civic life in Flint, helping to establish the Flint Housing Association and reforming the city's Planning Commission. During his time in Flint, Bacon witnessed the 1936-37
Flint Sit-Down Strike, and felt empathetic to the workers. Bacon gained close contacts with individuals who were active in establishing the Federal Housing Authority, such as Catherine Bauer and
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 ...
. Through these contacts he helped secure federal housing dollars for Flint. However, the local real-estate industry came to see this Federal funding for public housing as a threat to their business (as was the case in several cities early in the history of the FHA). The funding was turned down, and Bacon was effectively run out of Flint in 1939.
Career
From Flint, Bacon returned to Philadelphia to serve as managing director of the Philadelphia Housing Association. He served in the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
aboard the ''
USS Shoshone'' in the
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. In 1947, he joined the staff of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission under then-Executive Director Robert Mitchell (not the Canadian politician), and served as co-designer to the 1947
Better Philadelphia Exhibition
Better may refer to:
* "to better" as a verb, meaning to undergo betterment
* better, an alternate spelling of bettor, someone who bets ( gambles)
Music Albums
* ''Better'' (Chrisette Michele album), 2013
* ''Better'' (Brian McKnight album ...
in collaboration with
Oscar Stonorov
Oscar Gregory Stonorov (December 2, 1905 – May 9, 1970) was a modernist architect and architectural writer, historian and archivist who emigrated to the United States from Germany in 1929. His first name is often spelled "Oskar".
Early life
Sto ...
and
Louis Kahn
Louis Isadore Kahn (born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky; – March 17, 1974) was an Estonian-born American architect based in Philadelphia. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935. Whi ...
. Bacon was also an early member of the City Policy Committee, a grassroots movement of young Philadelphians, established by future civic leader Walter M. Phillips, that was instrumental in Philadelphia's political reform movement. Members of the Committee went on to become leaders in Philadelphia government after 1952, when the reform
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
(and later
U.S. Senator
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
)
Joseph Sill Clark
Joseph Sill Clark Jr. (October 21, 1901January 12, 1990) was an American writer, lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 90th Mayor of Philadelphia from 1952 to 1956 and as a United States Senator from Pennsylva ...
was elected
Mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
,
Richardson Dilworth became District Attorney, and a new Home Rule Charter was instituted.
In 1949, Bacon succeeded Mitchell as executive director of the
Philadelphia City Planning Commission. Serving under Mayors
Samuel, Clark, Dilworth, and
Tate
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
, his work brought him national repute along with his counterparts
Edward J. Logue
Edward Joseph Logue (February 7, 1921 – January 27, 2000) was an American urban planner and public administrator who worked in New Haven, Boston, and New York State.
Commentators often compare Logue with Robert Moses - both were advocates of l ...
in Boston and
Robert Moses
Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid 20th century. Despite never being elected to any office, Moses is regarded ...
in New York City during the mid-century era of
urban renewal
Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
. His face appeared on the
cover of ''Time'' magazine in 1964, and in 1965, ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
'' magazine devoted its cover story to his work.
That same year, Bacon was appointed by
President Johnson to serve as a member of the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
's Conference on Recreation and Natural Beauty. In 1967, he wrote ''
Design of Cities
''Design of Cities'', first published in 1967, is an illustrated account of the development of urban form, written by Edmund Bacon (1910–2005), who was the executive director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission from 1949 to 1970. The w ...
'', still considered an important architectural text. It is a seminal work on urban design that illustrates the relationship between historical and modern principles, as well as practices of urban planning, applied particularly to Philadelphia.
It was during his tenure at the City Planning Commission that Bacon and his staff conceived and implemented numerous large- and small-scale design ideas that shaped today's Philadelphia. These design concepts became
Penn Center,
Market East,
Penn's Landing
Penn's Landing is a waterfront area of Center City Philadelphia along the Delaware River. Its name commemorates the landing of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania in 1682. The actual landing site is farther south in Chester, Pennsylvani ...
,
Society Hill
Society Hill is a historic neighborhood in Center City Philadelphia, with a population of 6,215 . Settled in the early 1680s, Society Hill is one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in Philadelphia.The Center City District dates the Free Soc ...
,
Independence Mall, and the
Far Northeast. The
Center City Commuter Connection
250px, The ASCE plaque in Jefferson Station
250px, City plaque in Jefferson Station
The Center City Commuter Connection, (CCCC) commonly referred to as "the commuter tunnel", is a passenger railroad tunnel in Center City, Philadelphia, Penns ...
, a seemingly radical idea at the time, was conceived during the 1950s by Planning Commission staff member,
R. Damon Childs, who succeeded Bacon as executive director.
Not all of the concepts that Bacon supported materialized. One proposal that he inherited from Robert Mitchell was to encircle
Center City with a series of expressways, including the so-called
Crosstown Expressway (
I-695) and the Vine Street Expressway (
I-676) linking the
Schuylkill Expressway
The Schuylkill Expressway , locally known as "the Schuylkill", is a freeway through southern Montgomery County and the city of Philadelphia in Philadelphia County, and the easternmost segment of Interstate 76 (I-76) in the U.S. state of Pennsyl ...
(
I-76
Interstate 76 may refer to:
Interstate Highways in the United States
* Interstate 76 (Colorado–Nebraska)
* Interstate 76 (Ohio–New Jersey), running through Pennsylvania
Video gaming
* ''Interstate '76
''Interstate '76'' is a vehicular ...
) with the
Delaware Expressway (I-95) via
South Street. Three of the four expressways were built; however, the Crosstown Expressway faced significant local opposition and was never built, while a scaled-down expressway was built at Vine Street.
As an
unintended consequence
In the social sciences, unintended consequences (sometimes unanticipated consequences or unforeseen consequences) are outcomes of a purposeful action that are not intended or foreseen. The term was popularised in the twentieth century by Ameri ...
, the Crosstown Expressway proposal depressed property values and rents in the South Street corridor, leading to a turnover of the neighborhood's character from largely Jewish-owned garment shops to the thriving commercial and nightlife center that it is today. Other concepts conceived during Bacon's tenure, such as Schuylkill River Park, included in the 1963 Center City Plan, came into being many years later.
After Bacon's retirement from the Planning Commission in 1970, he served as vice president for the private planning firm Mondev U.S.A., was an adjunct professor at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...
and 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 ...
, from 1950 to 1987, and narrated "Understanding Cities", an award-winning series of documentary films describing the history and development of Rome under Pope
Sixtus V
Pope Sixtus V ( it, Sisto V; 13 December 1521 – 27 August 1590), born Felice Piergentile, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 April 1585 to his death in August 1590. As a youth, he joined the Franciscan order ...
, Paris under
Georges-Eugène Haussmann
Georges-Eugène Haussmann, commonly known as Baron Haussmann (; 27 March 180911 January 1891), was a French official who served as prefect of Seine (1853–1870), chosen by Emperor Napoleon III to carry out a massive urban renewal programme of n ...
, Regency London under
John Nash, American cities, and cities in the future post-oil era. He vociferously but unsuccessfully opposed the development of skyscrapers in
Center City Philadelphia
Center City includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of Philadelphia. It comprises the area that made up the City of Philadelphia prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854, which extended the city borders to be coterminous wi ...
taller than
Philadelphia City Hall
Philadelphia City Hall is the seat of the municipal government of the City of Philadelphia. Built in the ornate Second Empire style, City Hall houses the chambers of the Philadelphia City Council and the offices of the Mayor of Philadelphia. ...
, which until 1984 set the informal height limit for downtown at the hat of the statue of
William Penn
William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...
. That custom, known as the "
Gentlemen's agreement", was broken by developer
Willard G. Rouse III's
One Liberty Place
Liberty Place is a skyscraper complex in Philadelphia. The complex is composed of a 61-story, skyscraper called One Liberty Place, a 58-story, skyscraper called Two Liberty Place, a two-story shopping mall called the Shops at Liberty Place, a ...
. ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' correctly noted Bacon's opposition to the project, but it was incorrect in saying that "in opposing the skyscraper One Liberty Place, Mr. Bacon refused to attend the tower's 1986 groundbreaking and stopped speaking to his friend Willard G. Rouse III, who built it. 'I think it's very, very destructive that he and he alone has chosen to destroy a historical tradition that set a very fine and disciplined form for the city,' Mr. Bacon said at the time." Bacon was present at the groundbreaking, which took place in May 1985. Of course, Rouse was not capable of single-handedly changing the custom, even if it was not formally legal. Rouse's enormous project had the support of Mayor
W. Wilson Goode, Philadelphia City Council, and the City Planning Commission, which was forced by the announcement of Rouse's plan to admit that it had no up-to-date plan of its own for the future of Philadelphia's downtown.
Bacon won numerous honors including the
Frank P. Brown Medal in 1962, the
American Institute of Planners
The American Planning Association (APA) is a professional organization representing the field of urban planning in the United States. APA was formed in 1978, when two separate professional planning organizations, the American Institute of Pla ...
Distinguished Service Award, the
Philadelphia Award, and an honorary doctorate from Penn. In 1983, Bacon was elected into the
National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...
as an associate member, and became a full member in 1994. From 2004 until his death at the age of 95 the following year, Bacon helped found and served as an honorary director of a foundation that bears his name,
The Ed Bacon Foundation, whose programs are now managed by the Edmund N. Bacon Memorial Committee at the
Philadelphia Center for Architecture
The Center for Architecture and Design is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Center produces educational programs related to the topics of architecture, urban planning, and design, including talks, work ...
.
Bacon continued to assert his vision for Philadelphia's future actively in his later years. During the 1990s he proposed new concepts to improve Independence Mall, Penn's Landing, and the
Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Benjamin Franklin Parkway, commonly abbreviated to Ben Franklin Parkway and colloquially called the Parkway, is a boulevard that runs through the cultural heart of Philadelphia. Named for founding father Benjamin Franklin, the mile-long Parkway c ...
. During the same period, he promoted a design competition for North American cities to design the best "Post-Petroleum" city. Only one municipality, in Ottawa, Canada, committed to it. In 2002, at age 92, he skateboarded in
LOVE Park
LOVE Park, officially known as John F. Kennedy Plaza, is a public park located in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The park is nicknamed LOVE Park for its reproduction of Robert Indiana's 1970 ''LOVE'' sculpture which overlooks the pla ...
, the plaza he founded and designed at Cornell in 1932, as a protest against the city's ban on the sport. In 2003 he appeared in the documentary ''
My Architect
''My Architect: A Son's Journey'' is a 2003 documentary film about the American architect Louis Kahn (1901–1974), by his son Nathaniel Kahn, detailing the architect's extraordinary career and his familial legacy after his death in 1974.
In ...
'' about
Louis Kahn
Louis Isadore Kahn (born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky; – March 17, 1974) was an Estonian-born American architect based in Philadelphia. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935. Whi ...
, a
Philadelphia
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 ...
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 ...
. In September 2006, at the northwest corner of 15th Street and J.F.K. Boulevard, by LOVE Park, The Ed Bacon Foundation and the
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania responsible for the collection, conservation and interpretation of Pennsylvania's historic heritage. The commission cares fo ...
dedicated a state historical marker honoring Bacon's memory and commemorating his work.
Personal life
Bacon was the father of six children: two sons, actor
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American actor. His films include the musical-drama film '' Footloose'' (1984), the controversial historical conspiracy legal thriller '' JFK'' (1991), the legal drama '' A Few Good Men'' (1992), t ...
, musician
Michael Bacon, and four daughters, Karin, Elinor, Hilda and Prudence (later Kira). His wife was Ruth Hilda Holmes, a teacher and liberal political activist. His friends included
Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing mo ...
,
Steen Eiler Rasmussen
Steen Eiler Rasmussen, Hon. FAIA (9 January 1898 – 19 June 1990) was a Danish architect and urban planner who was a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and a prolific writer of books and poetry. He was made a Royal Designer ...
,
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 ...
, and
Konstantinos Apostolos Doxiadis
Constantinos A. Doxiadis (); also spelled Konstantinos. (14 May 1913 – 28 June 1975), often cited as C. A. Doxiadis, was a Greek architect and urban planner. During the 1960s, he was the lead architect and planner of Islamabad, which was ...
.
Works
*''
Design of Cities
''Design of Cities'', first published in 1967, is an illustrated account of the development of urban form, written by Edmund Bacon (1910–2005), who was the executive director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission from 1949 to 1970. The w ...
'' (May 20, 1976) Penguin.
*''Understanding Cities'' documentary film series (1981)
* Greg Heller
''Ed Bacon: Planning, Politics, and the Building of Modern Philadelphia'' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013)
References
Further reading
Heller, Gregory L. ''Ed Bacon: Planning, Politics, and the Building of Modern Philadelphia'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013) 320 pp
* Clow, David F. "Edmund N. Bacon: A Biographical Sketch of His Life from 1910 to 1939"
* Clow, David F. "The 1947 Better Philadelphia Exhibition: An Historic Turning Point" (January 1987. Conference: Second National Conference on American Planning History, The Society for American City and Regional Planning History, At Columbus, Ohio
* Clow, David F. "A Short Distance in the Right Direction: Penn Center and City Planning During the Clark Years in Philadelphia, 1952-1956
* Clow, David F. "Realizing Time: Participation, Planning and Politics in Philadelphia 1956-1962
* Clow, David F. "House Divided: Philadelphia's Controversial Crosstown Expressway" (January 1989. Conference: Third National Conference on American Planning History The Society for American City and Regional Planning History, At Cincinnati, Ohio. Selected as a Working Paper by the American Panning Association.
External links
The Ed Bacon Foundation(October 19, 2005)
Kevin Bacon's father helped mold him and Philadelphia(July 6, 2011)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bacon, Edmund
1910 births
2005 deaths
United States Navy personnel of World War II
American urban planners
Architects from Philadelphia
Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning alumni
Cranbrook Academy of Art alumni
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty
University of Pennsylvania faculty
Friends' Central School alumni