eighborhood

nit
as a dominant urban pattern by Arch. Jobel N. Bartolome

APL-2 Fundamentals of Urban Design & Community Architecture

Clarence Arthur Perry
Father of Neighborhood-Unit concept

An American planner, sociologist, author, and educator. He was born in Truxton, New
York. He later worked in the New York City planning department where he became a
strong advocate of the Neighborhood-Unit Concept. He was an early promoter of
neighborhood community and recreation centers.
Introduction

At first the concept of the neighborhood unit was restricted to

mean a settlement with no social, economic and political meaning.
As the concept of the neighborhood emerged, certain defining
characteristics became apparent. Merriam-Webster 11the
collegiate dictionary defines it as “people living near one another.”
When people live together long enough become well acquainted,
certain community characteristics appear. There was at first no
political structure, but certain unifying characteristics on social,
economic and physical level were evident. For example,
neighborhoods were friends, relatives, or business associates.
Physical form of a neighborhood can be informal and formal.
The concept of the neighborhood unit, crystallized from the
prevailing social and intellectual attitudes of the early 1900s
by Clarence Perry, is an early diagrammatic planning model for
residential development in metropolitan areas (Baer, 1984). It was
designed by Perry to act as a framework for urban planners
attempting to design functional, self-contained and desirable
neighborhoods in the early 20th century in industrializing cities
(Perry, 1998 ). Perry thought that the neighborhood should be the
starting point of urban development, because community
development is impressionable at the neighborhood level. He saw
the neighborhood as ‘an independent spatial unit that
accommodates a coherent community’ (Blom, 2004).
After the last war the planners set to work with increased vigor and
model neighborhoods were created in many countries at the same
time. The concept began to be seriously criticized, and by 1950 it
had been virtually discarded by the theorists - although new
neighborhoods were still being designed in accordance with the
supposedly outmoded concept by practicing planners
Research Method
The core of this research is a popular residential-design paradigm;
the neighborhood unit. Two questions must be answered: Why this
paradigm has been widely used as a design concept both in United
States and other parts of the world, although it has no specific
foundation? Why it has endured---even---prospered---until today
despite of frequent criticism? It is therefore to present this research
to elucidate the diffusion of Perry’s Concept. These research
objectives are:

• To describe and present the elements the Principle of

Neighborhood-Unit
• To analyze its form, structure and articulation
• To differentiate the concept from the current trends in planning for
example the “New Urbanism”.
• To determined the positive and negative impingement in both
transportation and land-use planning.
Research Method

The study begun with the online research this includes, data mining of
archival documents, maps and photographs that will describe Perry’s
Neighborhood-Unit. The well determine and well defined materials in
representation of Neighborhood-Unit principle could enable the
researcher to formulate a basic parameter which could be used as
tool for evaluating the Planning principle coined by Perry.

The study used historical analysis of the development and evolution

of the Neighborhood paradigm. Two examples will be presented to be
observed and scrutinize, from both United States & Philippines. For
systematic observation the examination of each example will be
traced in similar pattern including: concept size density, dwelling
units, schools, shops, center, open space and articulation.
 The Neighborhood Unit
Clarence Perry’s conceptualization of the neighborhood unit
evolved out of an earlier idea of his, to provide a planning
formula for the arrangement and distribution of playgrounds in
the New York region. The necessity for a formula such as this
was attributed to the rise of the auto-mobile in the early
20th century. During a period where road sense had not yet
amalgamated with the social conscious, and many of the urban
tools we now use to manage the threat posed by vehicular
traffic did not exist, or were not in abundance (such as
pedestrian crossings, traffic lights and road signs), developing
cities such as New York, which embraced the motor car,
suffered street fatality rates in excess of one child a day .
3.0 Possible Roots of Perry’s NU

GARDEN CITY
Lewis Mumford
Communitarian Thought
Utopian Communes
Social Reformer such Jane Addams
Forest Hills Gardens in the RPA monograph (Perry 1929)
The Neighborhood Unit 1927

¼ mile

Figure 1.0 Clarence Perry’s Neighborhood Unit, 1927. 
Figure 1.0 Clarence Perry’s Neighborhood Unit, 1927. The (Diagram 
[2002 version] courtesy of Duany Plater‐Zyberk and Company) 
4.0 The Principle

1. Size
A residential unit development should provide
housing for that population for which one
elementary school is ordinarily required, its actual
area depending upon its population density .

2. Boundaries
The unit should be bounded on all sides by arterial
streets, sufficiently wide to facilitate its bypassing,
instead ofpenetration, by through traffic .
3. Open space
A system of small parks and recreation spaces, planned
to meet the needs of the particular neighborhood,
should be provided.

4. School
Sites for the school and other institutions having
service spheres coinciding with the limits of the unit
should be suitably grouped about a centre point , or
common.
5. Institution Site
One or more shopping districts, adequate for the
population to be served, should be laid out in the
circumference of the unit , preferably at traffic
junctions and adjacent to similar districts of adjoining
neighborhoods
6. Internal Street Sytem
The unit should be provided with a special street
system, each highway being proportioned to its
probable traffic load, and the street not as a whole
being designed to facilitate circulation within the unit
and to discourage its use by through traffic .
Neighborhood
Elements
• Open Space
• Church
• Shops
• Center
• Dwelling Units
 NU Layout No.1

Development Assets
Housing: mainly single family

Total population: 6,125, with 1,021 students

Open spaces:  girls playground, boys playground, 
tennis courts, small greens

Community center: schoolhouse, public building 
(i.e. library, small museum, etc) and two churches

Shopping districts: located at 4 corners of 
development with plenty of parking.  Market 
squares

Streets make up 27% of the 160 acres for traffic 
flow, but no streets run through the development 
NU= Neighborhood Unit without being interrupted
NU Layout No.2

Development Assets
Housing: mix of single family attached and detached 
as well as apartments

Total population: 8,800, with 1,400 students

Open spaces: same as low cost suburban

Community center: schoolhouse (with can also be 
used as a community gathering place), public building 
(i.e. library, small museum, etc) and two churches

Shopping districts: main street along railroad and 
around central market square

Streets make up 36% of the 101 acres due to generous 
parking spaces provided in market square and 
boulevards

NU= Neighborhood Unit
 NU Layout No.3

Development Assets
Located where downtown business district 
and residential areas merge

Total population: 10,000, with 1,600 
students

All streets lead to community center

Open spaces and community center same as 
other developments

NU= Neighborhood Unit
NU Layout No.4

Development Assets
Housing: mainly single family

Total population: 6,125, with 1,021 students

Open spaces:  girls playground, boys 
playground, tennis courts, small greens

Community center: schoolhouse, public 
building (i.e. library, small museum, etc) and 
two churches

Shopping districts: located at 4 corners of 
development with plenty of parking.  Market 
squares

Streets make up 27% of the 160 acres for traffic 
flow, but no streets run through the 
development without being interrupted
NU= Neighborhood Unit
walkability
Healthy
safety
Accessibility
 Criticism Perry’s NU
Reginald Isaac, Chairman of the Department of City
Planning at Harvard.

“ Of all the aspects of the neighborhood controversy

the problem of homogeneity or heterogeneity is
the one most fraught”.

Creed
Color/racial segregation
Class and income Group Mixing
Criticism Perry’s NU

In 1963, Gilbert Herbert criticized

Perry’s principle was not an organic, it
is inflexible and prohibits change
Diffusion of the NU Principle
The Current Neighborhood Design
The Birth of LEED ND
Perry’s Neighborhood as Model
Urban Sprawl

Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a

multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading
outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-
density and AUTO-DEPENDENT DEVELOPMENT on rural
land, high segregation of uses (e.g. stores and
residential), and various design features that encourage
car dependency.
The term urban sprawl generally has negative
connotations due to the health, environmental and
cultural issues associated with the phrase. Residents of
sprawling neighborhoods tend to emit more pollution per
person and suffer more traffic fatalities.
Characteristics of a Sprawl

Single-use zoning

This refers to a situation where commercial, residential,

institutional and industrial areas are separated from one
another. Consequently, large tracts of land are devoted to
a single use and are segregated from one another by open
space, infrastructure, or other barriers. As a result, the
places where people live, work, shop, and recreate are far
from one another, usually to the extent that walking,
transit use and bicycling are impractical, so all these
activities generally require an automobile.[2
Characteristics of a Sprawl
Low-density zoning

Sprawl consumes much more land per-capita than

traditional urban developments because zoning laws
generally require that new developments are of low
density. The exact definition of "low density" is arguable,
but a common example is that of single family homes on
large lots, with four or fewer units per net acre. Buildings
usually have fewer stories and are spaced farther apart,
separated by lawns, landscaping, roads or parking lots.
Lot sizes are larger, and because more automobiles are
used much more land is designated for parking. The
impact of low density development in many communities
is that developed or "urbanized" land is increasing at a
faster rate than the rate of population.
Characteristics of a Sprawl
Job Sprawl

Job Sprawl is another land use symptom of urban sprawl

and car-dependent communities. It is defined as low-
density, geographically spread-out patterns of
employment, where the majority of jobs in a given
metropolitan area are located outside of the main
city's Central Business District (CBD), and increasingly in
the suburban periphery. It is often the result of urban
disinvestment, the geographic freedom of employment
location allowed by predominantly car-dependent
commuting patterns of many American suburbs, and
many companies' desire to locate in low-density areas
that are often more affordable and offer potential for
expansion.
Observation of the paradigm

Radburn, New Jersey

The industrialization of the United States after World War

I led to migration from the rural areas and a dramatic
growth of the cities during the 1920's. This population
shift led to a severe housing shortage. The automobile,
which was becoming a mainstay in American life, added a
new problem to urban living. Drastic changes in urban
design were necessary to provide more housing and to
protect people from the horseless carriage. In answer to
the needs of "modern society", Radburn, the "Town for
the Motor Age" was created in 1929.
Radburn, New Jersey (1930)
Foot Path Bicycle Lane
 Neighborhood walkable
Elements
• Open Space
• Church

Healthy
• Shops
• Center
• Dwelling Units

Accessible
safety
Bicycle lane
Observation of the paradigm 2.0
Barangay Marikina Heights
During the war, Barangay Marikina Heights was a vital military
defense location. The Japanese built tunnels in the area to stage
ambuscades, hide ammunition, store provisions, or seek shelter.
The underground subway notably made it easy for the Japanese to
reach their airfields known among residents as the Paliparan
(airport). In post-war times, it was also the military training ground
for Filipino soldiers who were deployed to the Korean War. April 2,
1978, Presidential Decree 1489 was issued, formally creating
Marikina Heights as Barangay.

Marikina Heights is known as “Little America in Marikina” which was

awarded as the cleanest and greenest community in the National
Capital region and most outstanding community in the Philippines in
1998.
Indutrial
Zone

School

Shopping
Center

Park
 School

Shopping Center

Central Park
Shaded Sidewalk
Social interaction
Social interaction
 walkable
Neighborhood
Elements
• Open Space
Healthy
• Church
• Shops
• Center
• Dwelling Units

Accessible
Bicycle lane
safety
The table shows that both selected urban development applies the
fundamental principle of Perry’s Neighborhood-Unit and contain
Perry’s unit elements.
Result and Discussion
Neighborhood -Unit is Still the ideal from its invention to the present
modification, it has been proven base on the Two Example provided
from a different world.

Most of the social criticism is already obsolete at this new Era of

Humanity. Men has already chance a lot . Social Segregation is
ended long time ago we are now civilized and somehow forget our
color or creed. If it is for human existence.

In general since neighborhood is the smallest unit in hierarchy of

human settlement there is less negative impact on both land use
and transportation unless otherwise it will become an urban sprawl
and descend to its characteristics as discussed in part two.

The availability of public transport network for both development

and embracing the pedestrian and bicycling oriented development
makes Both Radburn and Barangay Marikina Heights, even though
located in two different worlds somehow achieved a successful
planned sustainable and compact unit.
Salamat po saindo gabos!