Book on Phoenixville’s Ed Bacon Shines Light on Philadelphia’s Massive Post-War Redevelopment Program

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Famed city planner Ed Bacon in Society Hill in 1962. (Image via Jules Schick)

Ed Bacon: Planning, Politics, and the Building of Modern Philadelphia” by Gregory Heller shines light on the city’s massive post-war redevelopment program and the man responsible for re-imagining and rebuilding much of the decaying City Center, writes Izzy Kornblatt for The Phoenix.

Phoenixville native Edmund Bacon, who many consider to be Philadelphia’s counterpart to New York’s Robert Moses and Boston’s Edward Logue, was a postwar city planner and one of the most important and progressive planners in the world.

Bacon, father of the famous actor Kevin Bacon, was the executive director of Philadelphia’s City Planning Commission from 1949 until 1970. His work even got him on the cover of Time magazine in 1964.

Throughout the book, Heller carefully examines Bacon’s work and influence and discredits the notion that post-war city planners were all about highways and malls.

He shows Bacon as an engaged planner who loved his city but faced many difficulties in its development. The book’s narrative presents suburbia as a considered experiment in living, and showcases the radical steps taken in the 1960s to remake public spaces.

The book is essential reading for anyone interested in Philadelphia’s development or the complexities of the urban planning process.

Read the entire review at The Phoenix here.


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