Town Planning Associates was a design firm in New York City, active between 1942 and 1959, which included

Paul Lester Wiener Paul Lester Wiener (1895–1967) was an American architect and urban planner. Education He was educated in the Royal Academy of Berlin with post graduate study in Vienna and Paris. He came to the United States in 1913 and became a citizen in 191 ...

, Paul Schulz,

Josep Lluis Sert Josep is a Catalan masculine given name equivalent to Joseph (Spanish ''José''). People named Josep include: * Josep Bargalló (born 1958), Catalan philologist and former politician * Josep Bartolí (1910-1995), Catalan painter, cartoonist and ...

. The firm produced urban design and city planning in various new or existing South American cities including Bogotá, Chimbote in Peru, and Havana. Sert's master plan for Havana,

Havana Plan Piloto The Havana Plan Piloto was a 1955–1958 urban proposal by Town Planning Associates, which included Paul Lester Wiener, Paul Schulz, the Catalan architect Josep Lluis Sert, and Seely Stevenson of Value & Knecht, Consulting Engineers, seeking ...

, was notable for its integration of natural landscape into new urban and existing building schemes. Town Planning Associates made prominent use of patios and other aspects of Mediterranean architecture adapted to South and Central America. They employed modernist principles of the

Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne The ''Congrès internationaux d'architecture moderne'' (CIAM), or International Congresses of Modern Architecture, was an organization founded in 1928 and disbanded in 1959, responsible for a series of events and congresses arranged across Europ ...

(CIAM) and the

Athens Charter The Athens Charter (french: Charte d'Athènes, Greek: Χάρτα των Αθηνών) was a 1933 document about urban planning published by the Swiss architect Le Corbusier. The work was based upon Le Corbusier’s '' Ville Radieuse'' (Radiant C ...

.Wiener, Paul Lester, and Constantine Michaelides. Plan Piloto De La Habana: Directivas Generales, diseños Preliminares, Soluciones Tipo. Wittenborn Art Books, 1959. The charter got its name from the location of the fourth CIAM conference in 1933, which, due to the deteriorating political situation in Russia, took place on the SS Patris II bound for

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

from

Marseilles Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

. This conference was documented in a film commissioned by

Sigfried Giedion Sigfried Giedion (sometimes misspelled Siegfried Giedion; 14 April 1888, Prague – 10 April 1968, Zürich) was a Bohemian-born Swiss historian and critic of architecture. His ideas and books, ''Space, Time and Architecture'', and ''Mechaniza ...

and made by his friend László Moholy-Nagy ''"Architects' Congress."'' The Charter had a significant impact on urban planning after World War II and, through

and

, especially on the proposed modernization of Havana.

History

General Fulgencio Batista viewing model of presidential palace in the Plan Piloto presidential palace Havana Cuba

Wiener joined José Luis Sert in 1942 to form Town Planning Associates which operated until 1959, when they finished the

, as an architectural, urban planning, and site planning consultant firm. During this period, Wiener and Sert lectured in the United States and Latin America as experts in urban planning. Their designs exhibited elements of the "functional city" doctrine that Town Planning Associates promoted the

(CIAM), an organization founded by modern movement architects in 1928. The doctrine was codified in a document called the Athens Charter, drafted at CIAM's fourth meeting in 1933 in Greece. It also promoted ideas of

GATEPAC GATEPAC (Grupo de Artistas y Técnicos Españoles Para la Arquitectura Contemporánea) was a group of architects assembled during the Second Spanish Republic. Its most important members were: Josep Lluís Sert, Antoni Bonet Castellana, Josep Tor ...

(Grupo de Artistas y Técnicos Españoles Para la Arquitectura Contemporánea) the Spanish branch of C.I.A.M. Writing in reference to the writings of

Josep Lluís Sert Josep Lluís Sert i López (; 1 July 190215 March 1983) was a Spanish architect and city planner. Biography Born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Sert showed keen interest in the works of his uncle, the painter Josep Maria Sert, and of Gaudí. He s ...

, Joan Ockman notes:

Gallery

File:Havana Plan Piloto, plan of the intervention in Old Havana, Sert Master Plan.jpg, Havana Plan Piloto, plan of the intervention in Old Havana, Town Planning Associates. P31 Plan piloto de La Habana.jpg, P31 Plan piloto de La Habana, Area Central de La Habana,

, Town Planning Associates

References

External links

Architects' Congress (Trailer)

Town Planning Associates Directias Generles_Miami Libraries Digital Collections

Paul Lester Wiener papers, 1913-1968«La arquitectura contemporánea en España»
''Cahiers d'Art'', 1931, n.º 3, págs. 157-164 (in Spanish)

In Artehistoria.
«''A.C.'' La revista del GATEPAC (1931-1937) en el Museo Reina Sofía»
''Revista de Arte Logopress'' * Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
«''A.C.'' La revista del GATEPAC»
Pamphlet from an exhibition 29 October 2008 – 5 January 2009
Plan Piloto de La Havana
{{Authority control Neoclassical architecture in Cuba Land use Legal codes Urban planning by country Architecture groups Modernist architecture Modernist architects Urban planning organizations Architectural theory Arts organizations established in 1942 Organizations disestablished in 1942

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links