|
THE AMERICAN CITY
VOLUME XXII NUMBER 3
NEW YORK
MARCH, 1920
Town Planning in the
Devastated Regions of France
By George B. Ford
[City Planning Adviser, La Renaissance des Cités, Paris, France]
It is generally known that on
March 14, 1919, the French Parliament voted a compulsory town
planning law. In the devastated regions there are at least 2,600
towns and villages for which new town plans must be made and
approved before any permanent reconstruction can be authorized.
During 1919 practically no permanent reconstruction was started,
except for the rebuilding of certain factories in the North.
During the last two months of 1919 I made an investigation for
La Renaissance des Cites of the progress of town planning in
these 2,600 towns and villages. At least a thousand of them had
not yet succeeded in finding anybody who could make their plans
for them, for all the architects, engineers and surveyors are
already loaded down with more work than they can handle.
Up to December 31, 1919, about four hundred plans had been made
and approved by the local town councils and submitted to the
Prefet of the Department. It was estimated that nearly a
thousand or more plans were in preparation. As soon as these
plans were received at the Prefecture the Prefet would announce
that he would open a public hearing in the village on such and
such a date. These public hearings, according to the law,
continue for fifteen days. Up to December 31, 225 plans had been
presented at public hearings, and about 65 plans had been
returned to the Prefecture with all hearing formalities
completed.
These plans with their dossiers were then presented to the
Departmental Town Planning Commission, of which there was one in
each of the ten liberated departments. Up to the end of the year
there had been about fifty meetings of these various
commissions, at which about thirty plans had been studied. There
were four departments in which the commissions had not met at
all.
Up to the end of the year only four plans had been definitely
approved by the departmental commissions, and thirteen more had
been approved tentatively. Only three plans had actually been
put into effect by the municipalities. These were for Maurupt
and Heiltz-le-Maurupt in the Marne, and a small village in the
Nord.
The plans of all towns of over ten thousand inhabitants must be
sent to the superior Town Planning Commission attached to the
Ministry of the Interior at Paris. Up to February, 1920, no plan
had been submitted to the Superior Commission. Meanwhile,
however, the Superior Commission has had several meetings, and
has issued instructions to the departmental commissions tending
to improve and standardize town planning practice.
The town plans that have already been made are in about half the
cases the work of architects and in the other half the work of
local surveyors. In several departments, especially
Pas-de-Calais, the government engineers of roads and highways
have systematically made plans for new street alignments. In
about half of the departments the government architect-in-chief,
or his assistant, has made some sixty town plans.
Until recently the practice differed widely in the various
departments as to whom the Prefet would delegate the criticism
of the plans received by him, but now in almost every department
both the archi tect-in-chief and the engineer-in-chief present
their criticisms to the Departmental Town Planning Commission.
Unfortunately there was very little progress during the month of
January, 1920. The towns and villages have a constantly
increasing difficulty in finding competent people to make their
plans. This is due to the fact that very few architects or
engineers understand town planning in the sense that it is
understood in England and America, and also to the fact that the
town plans are not as attractively paid for as most of the other
work that the French architects or engineers can do. The
Minister of Liberated Regions, M. Ogier, is seriously studying
the problem now, because he realizes strongly - as do many who
are interested in town planning - that unless a solution is
found soon the pressure to rebuild will become so strong that
the town plans will have to give way and the great advantages of
the law will be lost by default. Unfortunately, also, for the
devastated regions, the big competition for a new town plan for
Paris, which terminated on February i, 1920, has for months
absorbed the best energy of some two hundred of the best town
planners of France.
Among the four hundred plans for the towns and villages which
have already been submitted to the Prefectures, there are a few
that are excellent, notably the plan for Armentieres by M.
Bourdiex, the plan for Bethune by M. Mulard and his associates
of the Groupe Cordonnier, the plan for Bapaume by La Cite
Nouvelle, the plan for Noyon by M. Mars, the plans for the
villages of Sissy, Regny, Mezieres, and Chatillon, in the Marne,
by M. le Guen, the plans for Anizy-le-Chateau, and Pinon, by M.
Abella, the plans for Dormans by M. Fournier, the plans for
Bar-le-Duc, Va-
THE VILLAGE OF HALLOVILLE, REMOVED TO A NEW SITE
New buildings are indicated by solid black; those that are still
usable, by the heavy shading; the lighter shading indicates
buildings totally destroyed
MAIN PORTION OF NEW PLAN FOR THE VILLAGE OF EMBERMENIL
With the consent of the property owners, the narrow, unsanitary
lots, where the houses were often five rooms deep, with three
interior dark rooms, are all being widened out and the whole
town reparcelled
rennes and Montfaucon by M. Remaury, the plans for a group of
villages around Lunéville by M. Deville, and the plans for Rheims by La Renaissance des Cités.
These plans have all been studied intelligently and
conscientiously; the architect in each case has tried to improve
circulation, hygiene, social amenity, and the appearance of the
town - all with the maximum of economy and labor. Most of the
other plans have fallen far short of what is recognized as good
practice in England and America. Either the author has tried to
make an elaborate academic plan, usually quite amateurish, or he
has contented himself with straightening out all the kinks in
the streets, thereby losing all the personality and the charm of
the town. Both sorts of plans are wasteful, giving small value
for money expended.
In various of the larger towns the town engineer or surveyor has
made the plan. From the standpoint of common engineering
practice, these plans are not bad, but they are quite lacking in
breadth of view, in preparation for the economic and social
growth of the community, and in amenity in general. This applies
particularly to the plans for Arras, Rheims, Liévin and Verdun,
and even to the plans made so far for Nancy and Lille, altho
Lille has recently taken a fresh start and is preparing for a
competition shortly. Lille has also worked out recently a most
interesting scheme for the improvement of her railroad and
terminal situation.
Aside from the big town planning competition in Paris,
competitions have been or are about to be held for Chauny,
Longwy, Soissons and Lille. The competition for Chauny, which
was held by La Renaissance des Cités, resulted in the submission
of twenty or more interesting projects, and the prize scheme of
Monsieur Rey is now being put into execution.
There are at least ten villages that have voted definitely to
rebuild on an entirely new site, either because the former site
was taken by the Government as a historical monument, as at
Montfaucon; or because the town was too far from the railroad,
as at Pinon in the Aisne; or because the former site was too
marshy, as at Boureilles in the Meuse ; or because the town was
too inaccessible from the railway, as at Halloville and at
Flirey in the Meurthe-et- Moselle; or because it is physically
impossible to rebuild on the old site, as at Vauquois in the
Meuse, where the whole top of the hill on which the town
formerly
A TYPICAL CASE OF STREET ALIGN MENT IMPROVEMENT
The providing of a Place Publique and a school playground is one
of the most pressing problems in the work of reconstruction.
This has been thru all the stages of approval and is now law,
and
permanent reconstruction can be started anywhere
stood has been shot into the air so that not a vestige of the
town can be found to-day.
One of the displaced towns, Pinon, has recently been adopted by
La Renaissance des Cités with a view to creating on the new site
a model town which will serve as an example to the whole
devastated region of how a community can profit by its
destruction to the great advantage of future generations.
We have heard a great deal in the news- papers about the
"adoption" of towns in the devastated regions, but so far, with
very few exceptions, the money which has been given has been
used only for immediate relief. The only village that has been
completely rebuilt is Vitrimont in the Meurthe-et-Moselle, near
Lunéville, which has been reconstructed as a model village by
Mrs. Crocker and Miss Polk of California. The plan, which was
made by M. Charbonnier, the Architect-in-chief of the Department
of Meurthe-et-Moselle, has resulted in many improvements in
sanitation and comfort, especially in the removal of the manure
piles from the fronts of the houses, and in replacing them by
rows of trees. In the town of Hatton-Châtel in the Meuse, Miss
Skinner of Holyoke, Mass., has put in a water-supply and many
other improvements. The Daughters of the American Revolution are
planning similar improvements in Tilloloy in the Somme, the town
of Holyoke, Mass., at Apremont in the Meuse, and the American
Committee for Devastated France at Anizy-le-Château. Such
adoption presents many possibilities of usefulness, for it can
pay the supplementary cost over and above the war damages
received from the state, needed to make local improvements.
The new Minister of the Liberated Regions, Monsieur Ogier, has
been for many months the Préfet of the Meuse, and has thus had a
first-hand acquaintance with the problems of the devastated
regions. He is quite sympathetic with the aims and ideals of the
town planners, and there is every reason to hope that town
planning in the devastated regions will receive a new impetus.
His assistant in charge of town planning and permanent
reconstruction is M. Chifflot, the well-known French architect
and Grand Prix de Rome. With his collaborators, the architects-in-chief
in each of the ten liberated departments, he is now reorganizing
the architectural and town planning service of the Ministry.
A number of the members of the French town planning society have
taken an active part in making town plans for the devastated
regions. A group of nine of them, under the name of the Bureau
Technique des Plans de Villes, have made many projects. The
Musée Social has been most helpful with its conferences and
publications on town planning and allied subjects. At the Ecole
des Beaux-Arts, Monsieur Jaussely has been giving a series of
lectures on town planning. The Ecole Supérieure d'Art Publique
has been giving courses of lectures on town planning. The Garden
City Association has conducted a most useful propaganda for
improved housing and town planning.
The Office Publiques des Habitations Bon Marchés, under the
leadership of M. Sellier, is creating five garden suburbs around
Paris, and is at present holding a big exhibition of town
planning and housing. The city of Lyons is preparing a similar
exhibition.
La Renaissance des Cités, which has brought together a number of
the leading specialists and authorities on town improvement, has
for three years been conducting an educational campaign in the
devastated regions and giving free advice of the best sort to
government and town officials and others to help them improve
their town plans, hygiene, social welfare and their legal or
administrative operation.
I began work with La Renaissance des Cités in October, 1919.
Before that time the organization had helped on the plans for
Chauny, Albert and Tracy-le-Val. Since October I have spent all
of my time traveling up and down the devastated regions, working
unofficially but directly with the departmental and local
authorities, trying to help them improve the plans that have
been submitted to them. Wherever possible I have submitted these
plans to the Technical Commission of La Renaissance des Cités
for their criticism. Meanwhile, wherever I have found a plan
that was typical of what to do, or what not to do, I have copied
it, with comments and criticisms attached, and La Renaissance
des Cités has made prints which have been sent out to the
Government and local authorities to serve as object lessons for
town planning improvement. Ten such studies have already been
sent out, and twenty more are in preparation.
I have also prepared for La Renaissance des Cités a short
handbook of the fundamental principles of town planning, based
on the problems that I found to be recurrent in the plans
already submitted at the prefectures. This is now being printed,
and will be widely distributed. Several of the préfets of the
liberated departments have asked us to take part in the
deliberations of the departmental town planning commissions as
technical advisers. Many local authorities have come to us for
technical advice.
The Town Council of Rheims, at the suggestion of the
Reconstruction Cooperative Society of Rheims, has asked us to
take in hand the plan for Rheims, which was refused and sent
back by the Depart- mental Commission on November 12, 1919. At
the unanimous request of the Town Council we are now making a
general plan in which we are trying to coordinate all that is
best in the plans heretofore submitted. Our preliminary scheme
has already been unanimously adopted by the Town Council, and
the public hearings began on February 23.
Meanwhile, La Renaissance des Cités is an advisory and not a
creative body, and does not wish in any way to replace the
professional town planners. We have created a Commission of
Experts for Rheims, consisting of M. Portevin, M. Rédont, M. Sue
and M. Abella. Together, we hope before the middle of April to
have completed a model plan which will serve as an object lesson
for the whole devastated region. Plans are already under way for
a number of cities in the interior of France, such as Nice,
Lyons, Clermont-Ferrand, Aix-les-Bains, and many others.
In general, the future is very bright, but it is necessarily
taking a long time to get started, because while France has a
wonderful background on the esthetic side of town planning, she
has had comparatively little experience with the social or
economic phases- at least as they are understood in England and
America. Any documents that England or America can send her on
these lines are eagerly devoured.
|
