Detroit City Plan

[wolverine]

I know we have discussed this sometime in the past. But Im working on a project for one of my urban planning classes that discusses urban form (duh).... Well anyway, everyone has been asked to pick a city. I obviously picked Detroit since I am familiar with it. I know Detroits original plan was based on the radial street plans of Paris, and then later the grid system was implemented, but I do not remember exactly why. Obviously there is a lot of efficiency to the grid, but Id like to know the precise reason. Also if anyone knows where I can get some good resources on this, I would be very happy. For some reason, I have the feeling the info is somewhere up on my bookshelf, but you never know. Theres quite a few knowledgeable people here.

Excuse the lack of apostrophies, I dont know why firefox must do this.

[Allan]

The city abandoned the Woodward plan in 1818. I have more info somewhere...in a book. I'll see if I can't dig it up.....

[RustTown]

It would seem that even the fathers of the "new" city (after the fire) didn't care much for planning when they saw that it would require a more slow growth. lol Seriously, I think the abandonment of the Woodward Plan, and multiple other tossings of city planning through the years show how dominated by the dollar Detroit was, even from the beginning. The city from the 1910's on really struck me as the first mass-scaled suburb (i.e. outside of the Grand Loop).