Towers in the park is a

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines * Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts * Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

How to rejuvenate urban 'towers in the park'
Globe and Mail, John Bentley Mays, May 12, 2011 high rise apartment buildings characterized by a high-rise building (a "slab") surrounded by a swath of landscaped land. Thus, the tower does not directly front the street. It was popular in

North American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...

and European cities in the 1960s and into the 1970s, especially for

public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

. The towers themselves are typically simple, brick-clad high-rise buildings with rectangular footprints and little ornamentation other than repeating series of

balconies A balcony (from it, balcone, "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. Types The traditional Maltese balcony is ...

for each apartment. However, some apartment buildings from this era use less conventional designs in the "tower in the park" format.

History

Le Corbusier pioneered the "tower in a park" morphology in his unrealized 1923 Ville Contemporaine. Responding to the squalid conditions of cities in the 1920s, Le Corbusier proposed razing the old cities and replacing them with new, clean, hyper-rationalist layouts employing the "tower in a park" morphology. The skyscrapers were intended to house the new city's three million residents on only 5% of the land. By placing the buildings near the center of the block, there is room for parking, lawns, trees, and other landscaping elements. Le Corbusier further employed the morphology in his 1930 plan for Paris, the Ville Radieuse (also unrealized). Owing to the wide diffusion and influence of these two plans and their ideas post–

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 opposing ...

, especially the latter, the "tower in the park" morphology spread throughout Europe and North America.

Criticism and current state

By the early 1970s, opposition to this style of towers mounted, with many, including urban planners, now referring to them as "

ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...

s".Tall Buildings, Toronto Star, August 27, 1973, C3 Neighbourhoods like St. James Town were originally designed to house young "swinging single" middle class residents, but the apartments lacked appeal and the area quickly became much poorer. Some public housing projects taking the form of towers in a park in the United States, most notably Pruitt-Igoe in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, were demolished because of deteriorating conditions. This was principally caused by the worsening economic circumstances of residents and an overall disinvestment in public housing. By the mid 2000s, green space surrounding some of the towers began being developed with new towers in an effort to increase density.

References

{{reflist Modernist architecture

History

Criticism and current state

See also

References