Planned Community Archives, Inc. (PCA), is
a nonprofit corporation dedicated to improving the quality of community
development in the United States. PCA seeks to use its archival,
research, publishing, and instructional resources to maintain the
historical records of community development projectsof educational
value, to prepare and disseminate information and analyses drawn
from these records, and to design and participate in interdisciplinary
courses on the graduate and undergraduate level on community development.
Planned Community Archives believes these activities will serve
the fundamental national objectives of improving the "built" environment
and knows of no other organization engaged in the collection and
preservation of original source materials for this purpose.
What is a Planned Community?
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.
What planned communities share in common is the belief that planning
should be carried out in a orderly fashion with concern for community
values. As towns grow in population, their inhabitants share
in the benefits ofthe planned use of public land held in common.
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).
Planned Community ArchivesCollection
at George Mason University
Under an agreement between Planned Community
Archives, Inc., and George Mason University, the Planned Community
Archives Collection is housed in Special Collections & Archives
of 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. This rapidly growing collection currently comprises
375 cubic feet (562 linear feet).
The materials collected by PCA contain information
on nearly all planned communities in the United States, though initial
emphasis has focused on the planned community of Reston, located in
Fairfax County in Northern 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. Contributing individuals include Robert
E. Simon, Jr., founding developer of Reston; William
Nicoson, first Director of the HUD office of New Community Development;
Tom Grubisich and Peter McCandless, the authors of Reston: The
FirstTwenty Years: and Charles
A. Veatch.
Collaboration inEducation
Planned Community Archives has contributed to
the design and instruction of several courses in community planning
and development at George Mason University, both at the graduate
and undergraduate levels. Practitioners identified by PCA
in a variety of disciplines have assisted in instruction.
Planned Community Archives has also actively
advocated creation of interdisciplinary degree programs at the graduate
and undergraduate levels focusing on the urban development process,
and is participating in the design of George Mason University programs
in urban and suburban studies.
Planned Community Archives has sponsored a video
history of Reston's development, providing on-camera interviews
with key participants of the past quarter century. Similarly,
histories may be undertaken for other designated projects.
Tapes generated from video histories and tapes already contributed
to the Planned Community Archives are available for classroom use.
Research
Planned Community Archives intends to sponsor
research on current issues of community development for which its
archives may be particularly helpful and may undertake publication
of research results.
A Legacy for Tomorrow
Archives preserve the records of the past. However,
to represent adequately the history of new towns and to meet the needs
of today's research scholars and urban planners, new collections documenting
planned communities must be acquired. Planned Community Archives
is also seeking support for the development of new educational programs
and the application of new technology to process collections andserve
the needs of researchers. Planned Community Archives is looking
for individuals who have made contributions to the development of
new townsand who have records documenting their efforts. Planned
Community Archives is also seeking the support of the business and
professional communities in meeting its operational and educational
goals.
Links
Search
the PCA Finding Aid/Research Guide
View
Reston Images
Links
to Other Planned Community WebSites
Research Services
Hours of Operation
Monday-Friday, 12:30 pm to 5:00 pm
Location
Planned Community Archives
Special Collections & Archives
Fenwick Library, MSN 2FL
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444 USA
TEL: 703.993.2220
FAX: 703.993.2255
E-MAIL: speccoll@gmu.edu
