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Full-Text Articles in American Studies
I. M. Pei, William Zeckendorf, And The Architecture Of Urban Renewal, Marci M. Clark
I. M. Pei, William Zeckendorf, And The Architecture Of Urban Renewal, Marci M. Clark
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This dissertation reevaluates the practice of design and real estate in the United States through an insufficiently understood case study of the architect-developer team of I. M. Pei and William Zeckendorf and their twelve-year partnership in urban renewal. William Zeckendorf (1905-1976) was the most ambitious real estate developer in the United States in the 1950s, with an outsize personality and larger-than-life plans. Unlike most developers of the era, Zeckendorf believed that quality design and visionary planning were critical to remaking city cores through urban renewal. To accomplish this, he hired I. M. Pei (b. 1917), a talented, young designer out …
They Were Never Silent, You Just Weren't Listening: Buffalo's Black Activists In The Age Of Urban Renewal, Domonique Griffin
They Were Never Silent, You Just Weren't Listening: Buffalo's Black Activists In The Age Of Urban Renewal, Domonique Griffin
Senior Theses and Projects
“They Were Never Silent” will explore the inner workings and impact of both top-down and bottom-up approaches to Urban Renewal for African Americans in the city of Buffalo. For decades, government funded projects that arose in the name of “saving” inner-cities have been guilty of concentrating poverty into centralized areas, directing monies toward downtown development that dislocated families, excessive housing clearance, and modernizing segregation in the form of public housing projects. However, we have yet to fully explore how black community members crafted their own visions of a revitalized city. Many of the most significant bottom-up Urban Renewal developments have …