The plan to redevelop the town center of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the 1960's. Includes many scenes showing the old buildings of the area, scale models and drawings of the planned changes, and architects discussing the new buildings. . . WDTVLIVE42 - Transport, technology, and general interest movies from the past - newsreels, documentaries & publicity films from my archives.

Comments

1. Awesome
2. I wish they built stuff like this still. Much more impressive than the modest Disney land designs of modern urban planning. Everything back then was all interconnected and inside. Now, its all back on the street with nowhere to go. Modern downtowns or nothing but a cluster of locked glass buildings. The city they were planning in this video has substance to it, it is a destination with places for people to go. Simple but impressive granite towers that work with each other and with publictransit
3. As a native Philadelphian, I'm especially grateful to be seeing the genesis of the city I grew up knowing. Thanks for sharing this film.
4. How has this held up over time? Fifty years on, we should be able to see if this plan was successful, even in part. I noticed that not all the ring roads they talked about were built. Did they build the 6,000-car parking garage? "We treat the automobile as an honored guest, and cater to its needs." How about treating people as the honored guests of the city? Did they ever put in the river walk? Though I disagree with the solutions, this is a great little film.
5. Interesting to see the famous architect, I.M. Pei describing the design for his buildings, which still look pretty nice today. Also, if you stick with the film to 51:35, the choreographed chalk drawing of the transportation systems by the planning department employees was pretty cool. They must have spent a lot of time rehearsing that!
6. this one was fantastic and informative. i found myself comparing the sketches to a map of modern Philadelphia during the film. thanks for this!
7. Kevin Bacon's dad 02:22
8. "Rythmic waves of expansion" my ass. More like white flight.