The term, "Planned Community," refers to
large-scale, mixed-land-use developments that have socially diverse
populations and conform to a single master plan. The related
term, "New Town," refers to a community that seeks to produce a range
of valuable social, environmental, and economic benefits that more
conventional, less comprehensively planned developments are not likely
to achieve. Such communities have been proposed as creative
alternatives to conventional developments for many years and in many
countries. Planned communities share the belief that planning
should be carried out in a orderly fashion with concern for community
values.
The idea of planning a community is not new.
One of the earliest on record is Miletus, Greece, which was begun in
the fourth century B.C. The Middle Ages saw the creation of several
planned cities in Europe. In the early twentieth century, the British
"Garden City" movement, which was the genesis of modern-day planned
communities, was started by Ebenezer Howard. This movement was a
reaction against the dirty, crowded cities associated with the
Industrial Revolution. Garden Cities were located well away from the
urban centers, contained open land, and limited commerce and industry.
The era of New
Town development in the United States, which is of special interest to
PCA, begins with the Greenbelt Towns developed by the federally
sponsored Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression of
the 1930s. The next major new town development undertaken was
Reston, Virginia in 1962. Since that time at least
thirty-eight planned communities have been developed throughout the
United States. Thirteen of these communities were sponsored
by the Federal New Communities Program of the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development (1970-1983).
The collection was originally placed on
deposit at George Mason University Libraries by Planned Community
Archives Inc. in 1986, and was permanently transferred to the Libraries
in 2006. The materials which comprise the Planned Community Archives
Collection contain information on many planned communities in the
United States, though collection emphasis has focused mainly on the
planned community of Reston, Virginia. The
collection also contains much information on Russian, French, and
Israeli new towns and planned communities of other nations.
The collection documents the efforts of institutions, organizations,and
individuals to develop new planned communities and to improve existing
communities. Institutions and corporations that have
contributed to the collection include Mobil Land Development Corp;
Chevron, Inc.; WETA-TV; and Warner Cable Communications of
Reston. Contributing organizations include the Reston
Governance Task Force.
The Planned
Community Archives Collection is housed in Special Collections
& Archives in George Mason University's Fenwick Library, where
it is available to scholars, teachers, students, practitioners, and
members of the public. PCA contains information in a variety
of formats gathered from a diverse group of individuals, organizations,
corporations and government agencies. Included are numerous
manuscripts, published books, government documents, flyers and
ephemera, video and audio recordings, newspapers, journals,
photographs, architectural drawings and plans, maps, and engineering
reports. Manuscript materials include correspondence,
memoirs, lectures, reports, and minutes.
Access the
Planned Community Archives Collection Finding Aid.
Illustrations:
Plan: Town of Tyrone, New Mexico from Outline of Town and
City Planning, Ebenezer Howard from Greenbelt:
History of a New Town 1937-1987, Greenbelt, Maryland aerial
photograph from Greenbelt: History of a New Town 1937-1987,
Reston Town Center model from the
Planned Community Archives Collection, Loudoun Station drawing from the
Planned Community Archives Collection
Links to Web
sources for information on the Planned Community Archives Collection
and Reston, Virginia:
William
Conklin Collection
Kathryn
Miller Planning Commissioner Archive: Loudoun Station Materials
William
Nicoson Collection
Reston
Collection Images
Reston
Garden Club Collection
Reston
Reflections Oral History Archive
Robert
E. Simon, Jr., Collection
Francis
C. Steinbauer Collection
Reston
Museum
Reston
Association
Charles
A. Veatch Collection
Planned
Community Archives Finding Aid
For
more information on the Planned Community Archives Collection, Special
Collections & Archives, George Mason University Libraries,
please contact the Special Collections & Archives staff at
703.993.2220 or speccoll@gmu.edu
