Suburban Innovations

Abstract

This commentary addresses the evolution of the North American suburb over the last 70 years, a period over which it adopted a development pattern marking a radical break from prior forms of urban settlement. Early in this period, the emerging suburban form constituted perhaps the sharpest transition in the history of urbanism in terms of urban form and transportation. This suburban form rapidly came to dominate North American metropolitan regions and spread to other parts of the world. In this commentary, I propose a brief history of the North American suburb since the late 1940s seen through the lens of the contributions it made to the evolution of urbanism across the continent. I contend that while suburbs are often associated with urban stasis, because perceived as an impediment to the emergence of new environmentally sensitive and socially and functionally integrated urban formulas relying on public transit and walking, they have played a major transformative role in the past and may be the source of further urban transitions in the future. North American suburbs have also undergone deep social changes over the last decades. However, I question the claim, made by some researchers, that we are entering a post-suburban era; but at the same time, I acknowledge the possibility of major future innovations within present suburban configurations.

The Post-war Revival of Canadian Planning: Assessing the Impact of the Community Planning Association of Canada

“…Other scholars have demonstrated that Canadian suburban development exhibits the characteristics of a path-dependent process. 18 This article considers whether and how CPAC may have been a central institution that contributed to that path-dependency. In order to demonstrate that this is what occurred in the suburbanization of Canada, the research team looked for evidence in the primary source materials that solidifies the present hypothesis that the strategic partnership between the government, corporate developers and large-scale builders, with the intent of boosting Canadian consumerism and, subsequently, its economy in the post-war years created sets of enduring institutions and community planning approaches that have had continuing impacts upon the processes and patterns of suburbanization in Canada.…”